The Curse
by StorySmall
Summary: (Previously Gravity Falls) The mysterious book hides more secrets than would appear. Secrets that will be dangerous if not put to an end. It's up to the Mystery Twins to find out what the book really hides before it ends up hurting both of them.
1. Something Strange

It was a relatively quiet night in Gravity Falls. There were the usual sounds of wind in the trees, the scuffling of animals, the creaking of the shabby buildings that littered the area, and in the case of the Mystery Shack residents, the loud snoring of Stan Pines. It took some time at first, but the twins had learned how to sleep through the obnoxious sound. Mabel was softly muttering something in her sleep, her hand resting gently on her pet pig, and Dipper lay perfectly still, with only the book numbered 3 on his chest rising and falling with each breath. The sleepy scene was broken however, when without warning, Dipper shot up in his bed with a gasp, flinging the maroon journal to the floor with a loud whack. Mabel twitched, and then lay still again, but Dipper sat up in his bed, panting slightly, and staring at nothing in particular. He broke his stare and glanced all around the room, his eyes finally resting on the book, which had flipped open and landed funny on the floor beside him. At that moment, Dipper knew something was very wrong.

That morning at breakfast, Dipper didn t even bother to pour a bowl of cereal, which his sister eagerly devoured.

"Sparkly cereal treats rot your teeth, but are fun to eat"! she sang as she helped herself to another bowl.

"Grunkle Stan, do you feel funny at all today?" Dipper asked slowly.

"If you want me to tell you a joke, I know a good one but don't feel like telling it," the older man replied, barley looking up from his newspaper.

"No, I meant like, do you feel like something strange is about to happen?" Dipper said, playing casually with his vest.

"Not really, unless you count finding out that the swallow on Duck-tective is really an alien, but we all saw that coming," Stan replied, shrugging.

"Not even, you know, like an apocalypse or an earthquake or something?" Dipper said, sounding less and less casual as he went on.

"If there were to be an unplanned natural disaster that was going to happen today, it would be in the papers," Stan said, slapping his newspaper, "Why are you so paranoid?"

"I'm not paranoid," Dipper said defensively.

"Yes you are!" Mabel put in, "This morning you were all like, hey Mabel, do you think we re all going to die sometime soon?" Mabel squished her cheeks and crossed her eyes as she spoke, along with an exaggerated impression of Dipper s voice.

"Fine, fine," Dipper said, waving it off, "But if something really weird happens sometime soon, expect an I-told-you-so."

Later in the morning, it began to rain hard, and eventually thunder. Grunkle Stan closed the Mystery Shack for the day because it was clear that there would be no visitors in that weather. Dipper and Mabel invited Soos and Wendy to stay anyway so they could hang out . Wendy left because she had plans to watch her family do the manly-man rain dance, but Soos stayed at the Shack with the Pines family. The four of them had seated around the table and were playing Cookies , a tasty variation of Spoons .

"Mine!" Mabel shouted, snatching the closest peanut butter confection and shoving it in her mouth. The boys all dove for the remaining cookies, but Grunkle Stan took both and ate them.

"What? You can't do that!" Dipper said with a laugh.

"Oh, yeah? Just did," Stan said, pointing both thumbs at his full mouth. Everyone at the table broke into laughter.

"Okay Soos, you re turn to deal," Mabel said, shoving the cards in his direction.

"Y'know, the person who deals the cards has the better chance of winning, because they have less time spent looking at the cards," Soos observed, using fancy motions to shuffle, and then deal the cards.

"I always have the better chance, because I'm always watching those cookies", Stan argued, placing the round prizes more or less at the center of the table. Mabel reached into the box and helped herself to a cookie.

"Hey, hey!" Stan said quickly, "That box of cookies cost me a whole ten cents at a garage sale!"

"Mmm, they disappear in your mouth!" Mabel observed.

Soos took up the first card and passed it on to Dipper, who looked at it, and passed it to Mabel. The game went on in silence, minus the sound of rain and the rhythmic thumping of the cards on the table.  
However, the cards lost their flow, and everyone looked up to see almost the entire deck of cards in Dipper s draw pile, and Dipper staring, unmoving at his cards.

"What, Dipper? Forget how to play?" Stan asked, less than sincerely.

"Dipper, you okay?" Soos asked.

"Dipper?" Mabel touched her brother's shoulder. Dipper started and dropped his cards.

"What? Wait, what just happened?" Dipper asked, looking around.

"You delayed a perfectly good game of Cookies," Grunkle Stan suggested.

"You kinda blanked out there," Soos said, "You okay, man?"

"Yeah I m fine," Dipper said slowly, still glancing around. "Why am I at the dinner table?"

Grunkle Stan burst into laughter, but Mabel and Soos stared at Dipper with looks of confusion on their faces.

"Oh, wait, that wasn't a joke?" Stan said, seeing Dipper's befuddled expression.

"We were playing Cookies, silly," Mabel offered.

"I don't remember that," Dipper said, eying the cards on the table in front of him. "I don't remember getting here, or playing anything or..." Dipper paused and touched his hand to his vest, "I gotta go," and with that, he turned and ran up the stairs.

"Wait, Dipper!" Mabel called, coming after him.

"Let him go," Mabel, Stan said, putting the cookies back in the box, "when you ve gotta go, you ve gotta..." But Mabel was already gone.

Dipper gently closed the attic trapdoor behind him and sat on his bed, reaching into the left side of his vest, he pulled out the book. The six-fingered hand shone in the light of his lamp. Dipper examined the book, flipping it over and turning through the pages.

"Dipper?" Mabel poked her head through the trapdoor and crawled through it, letting it slam behind her. Dipper didn t even look up.

"Mabel, do you know if I put this book in my vest today?" he asked, closing the book and looking at the cover again.

"Don t think so, do you do that often?" Mabel asked, sitting beside him on his bed.

"Only when I m going out..." Dipper said, his voice drifting off.

"Dipper, what happened back there?" Mabel asked, scooting closer to her brother.

"I swear, I don't know," Dipper replied, looking Mabel in the eye, "I don't remember so much as getting downstairs. One minute I'm looking at the sunrise, and the next, I m sitting at a table on a rainy day."

"You really don t remember anything?" Mabel asked.

"No... Is this some kind of joke or something? Did I fall asleep and you guys decided to trick me?"

"Dipper, we would never do that!" Mabel said, crossing her arms, "If anyone s joking, it s you! C mon, Dipper, tell me you don't remember playing that one round of cookies where Grunkle Stan and Soos broke the last cookie and tried to gather the most crumbs! You laughed so hard you almost cried."

"I promise Mabel, I m not joking when I say I don t remember any of that!" Dipper said rubbing his head, "And you know I wouldn t lie to you."

"I know," Mabel said softly, "But it doesn t make any sense! How could you forget a whole day just like that?"

"I dunno," Dipper said, hanging his head, but he paused, "But I think it has to do with the book."

* * *

Hey guys, Thanks for reading this first chapter! Reviews are always welcome!

Note: I just noticed that a lot of the punctuation was lost when I transferred this to FF, sorry about that, I'll see if I can fix it.


	2. Mud Puddles and Memory Loss

_"I know," Mabel said softly, "But it doesn't make any sense! How could you forget a whole day just like that?"_

_"I dunno," Dipper said, hanging his head, "but…" he paused, "But I think it has to do with the book."_

"We're going outside, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel called as she and Dipper made their way towards the door.

"In the rain?" Stan asked from his easy chair, "Is that the cure for memory loss?"

"It's only a little sprinkle," Mabel said, glancing out the window, where a few scattered raindrops still hit the glass.

"Fine by me," Stan said with a shrug.

The twins put on their jackets and boots before stepping out into the cold, wet land outside.

"Yay, puddles!" Mabel shouted, leaping into the largest one in sight, splashing mud all the way up her legs. She jumped a few times, but stopped when she saw her brother standing distantly off to the side.

"C'mon Dipper!" she called, splashing again, "Stop worrying and have some fun for a while!"

Dipper turned to look at his sister, still wearing his look of concern, "I'm sorry Mabel, it's just that, you know, I feel like something weird is going to happen, something bad. Plus, I can't remember half of today happening, I'm just…"

"Weirded out?" Mabel suggested.

"Yeah."

"Well come be weirded out while playing in the puddles with me," Mabel said, grabbing his arm and pulling him into the puddle.

"Aw, what? Now I've got mud in my boots," Dipper complained.

"Since you're dirty anyway…" Mabel said, reaching down and splashing her twin with water.

"Hey," Dipper said with a laugh, "You're dirtier than I am," and he splashed her back.

Mabel squealed and the mud war began. The twins ran through the forest, finding bigger puddles and splashing each other in them.

"I am the queen of this puddle!" Mabel shouted, jumping onto her back inside a puddle twice her size.

"Then I guess I'll be king," Dipper offered, splashing down next to her. Dipper and Mabel laughed together, splashing around in the puddle. Eventually, Dipper got up and started to wring himself out.

"Oh wow, I'm soaked," he said, watching new puddles form at his feet.

"I'm soaked-er!" Mabel countered, pulling off her sweater, "My sweater alone could probably fill the bathtub!"

"Maybe we could dump it all on Grunkle Stan from the roof," Dipper suggested.

They laughed and there was a moment of silence as the twins dumped the water from their boots.

"Hey Mabel," Dipper said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, Dipper?"

"Have you noticed that nothing…weird happened to us while we were out here?

"Huh, you're right," Mabel replied after she thought for a moment, "No gnomes, no gobblewonkers, not even a giant spider." Mabel paused to shrug, "Too bad."

"But Mabel, all those other times I had the book with me, but this time, I left it at home," Dipper explained.

"Do you think the book is connected to all of that?" Mabel asked in awe.

"I can't say for sure, but I think maybe it is."

By this time, the rain had picked up again and thunder was rolling in the distance.

"Shoot, we should probably go back," Mabel said, gathering up her sweater and getting up out of her puddle.

"Yeah, we probably sh-sh-sh…"Dipper broke off as if he forgot what he was going to say.

"Dipper? You're doing it again!" Mabel said, growing concerned.

Dipper stared blankly at the ground before him, swaying subconsciously. Mabel grabbed his shoulders to steady him, and Dipper went limp in her arms, staring straight through her.

"Dipper? Dipper?" Mabel shouted, shaking him roughly.

"Wha-?" Dipper muttered sleepily, then with a cry he shot back, tripping and falling over backwards.

"Dipper! Are you okay? You did it again, only you almost passed out! You wouldn't…" Mabel shouted hurriedly.

"Mabel," Dipper interrupted, looking at his hands, "I don't remember anything."

Mabel's eyes went wide, "Dipper, do you know where you are? What was the last thing you remember?"

"I…" Dipper touched his chest and gasped.

"Dipper?" Mabel knelt in the mud in front of him. Dipper reached into his vest and pulled out a battered red book. Lightning flashed as Mabel gasped and Dipper lost his breath.

"The book," they whispered together.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Mabel asked, pacing the attic. Dipper lay sprawled out on his bed, still not quite breathing normally.

"The last thing I remember…is telling you that I thought the book had caused me to forget something…and then we hid it…under my mattress…then you said we should go outside for a while…then…then we went downstairs, I think…then I was suddenly in a puddle outside during a thunderstorm with the book in my vest," Dipper recalled shakily.

"Ugh!" Mabel flopped out on her own bed, "It doesn't make any sense! I watched you put that book away, there was no way you could have gone back and got it!" Mabel sighed, "Dipper?" she flipped onto her stomach and looked her brother in the eye, "Promise me this isn't some joke…I was really scared back there."

Dipper whispered something under his breath and walked over to his sister's bed. Mabel sat up and Dipper sat next to her. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around Mabel and whispered, "I'm sorry. I really don't know what's going on, and I promise, we're going to find out what's wrong and put a stop to it."

Mabel hugged him back, and for the next few moments, they simply held each other in silence.

When Mabel woke up the next morning, it was still dark out, but she was sure something had awakened her. She sniffled back a runny nose and rolled over to see Dipper sitting up in bed, covered in sweat and panting softly.

"Dipper?" She said softly. Dipper turned and looked at her.

"Did…did I do it again?" he asked slowly.

"I don't think so, you were asleep," Mabel said, wiping her nose, "Did you have a nightmare?"

"I don't know…I just woke up really…"Dipper's gaze fell onto a red book messily dropped on the floor. Mabel's gaze followed his. Somehow, the pages seemed to be taunting them…flopped open and so innocent looking, but the twins both knew in that instant that things were only going to get worse…and it would be the book that caused it.

* * *

I found out how to upload this with all the punctuation! Yay!

This is actually uploaded up to chapter 4 on another webiste, I'm just catching it up.

I seriously don't have a title for this story...kinda lame. -_-

Reviews are appreciated!

One more thing: There is absolutely NO pincest in this story, don't be gross!


	3. Twins Stick Together

_Dipper's gaze fell onto a red book messily dropped on the floor. Mabel's gaze followed his. Somehow, the pages seemed to be taunting them…flopped open and so innocent looking, but the twins both knew in that instant that things were only going to get worse…and it would be the book that caused it._

* * *

Dipper straightened his pine tree cap in front of the bathroom mirror. His eyelids were droopy and lines under his eyes were more prominent than usual. Neither he nor Mabel had gotten much sleep that night, and Mabel had caught a cold from the day before. Dipper touched his vest to feel where the book was tucked under it. Nine weeks ago, he had spent hours of free time reading and studying the mysterious journal, and now…now he wished he could just throw the book away. For nine weeks, the book had helped him survive his summer vacation in Gravity Falls, and since yesterday, the book had become a nightmare.

Why? What was different? What had changed yesterday morning that made things go so wrong? Dipper lifted the brim of his hat and examined his reflection. He didn't look different. Aside from a slight headache, he didn't feel any different either. Dipper took off his hat and examined it absentmindedly. Even his hat looked the same. Despite months of crazy adventures, it had retained its color and shape. Dipper placed the cap back in its place and stepped away from the mirror.

"Dipper!" there was a knock on the door, "I need some more tissues!"

Dipper sighed and pulled a water-stained tissue box out from under the sink.

"Again? You have to have gone through three boxes," Dipper said, opening the door for his sister.

"I can't help it, I have a never-ending supply of snot," Mabel joked, rubbing her nose on her sweater sleeve as she took the box from Dipper.

"Ew," Dipper said flatly.

"Maybe we could dump it on Grunkle…" Mabel went on.

"No, just don't," Dipper interrupted.

Mabel's mischievous smirk softened into a caring smile as she touched her brother's shoulder. "Hey, don't worry," she said gently, "I'm going to stay with you all day today and make sure nothing weird happens to you."

Dipper managed a slight smile. "Great," he said jokingly, "Now I'm going to catch a cold."

Mabel squeezed her brother, but sneezed on his shoulder.

"Oh, now that's gross," Dipper said as lightheartedly as he could.

Mabel laughed and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

True to her word, Mabel stuck by Dipper's side all through their chores in the Mystery Shack, and all morning, nothing strange seemed to happen. Of course, Mabel had snot blobs shaped like cereal mascots, and both Mabel and Dipper came fairly close to falling asleep on their feet, but Dipper hadn't blacked out once, and Mabel had lost the serious look she'd picked up overnight.

Later in the afternoon, Dipper and Mabel crashed on the living room floor watching the last remaining minutes of Tiger Fist before Duck-tective came on. Mabel had built a tower out of used tissues by the wastebasket, and Dipper was continuously rubbing his forehead.

"You okay Dips?" Mabel asked, just to make sure.

"I'm fine," Dipper said tiredly, "Just a headache…I think I might try to get some sleep."

"Okay then," Mabel said, gathering her tissues and getting up.

"You don't have to come too," Dipper assured her, "I'm fine."

"Nope," Mabel said, dumping her tissues from her sweater into the already full basket, "I'm staying with you all day…besides, we all know the swallow on Duck-tective is an alien."

Dipper didn't argue, but stood up slowly, holding his head, and the two of them stepped upstairs into the attic. Dipper sprawled out on his bed right away, not even taking off his shoes, and Mabel picked up a magazine.

Dipper rolled over and took the red book out of his vest, placing it on the bed stand as Mabel watched. The twins stared at the book, as if they expected it to leap out at them and bite them. Eventually Dipper rolled over, and Mabel turned back to her magazine. It was fairly quiet in the attic for an afternoon in Gravity Falls. Of course, there was the essential sound of voices in the Shack downstairs and the wildlife outside, along with the soft _flap_ whenever Mabel turned a page, but Dipper still tossed and turned, pulling up the blankets, then shoving them back off. Mabel would peek over her magazine with concern, then force her eyes back to the glossy pages. It seemed like forever before Dipper grew still and began to breathe steadily in his sleep.

Mabel sniffed and rubbed her eyes, letting out a yawn. She set down her magazine and crawled under her own covers, kicking off her shoes first.

When Dipper awoke, he didn't feel any better than when he went to sleep... if anything, he felt worse. His head was pounding and he felt as if he hadn't gotten any rest at all. Dipper let out a cough and groaned at the pain it caused his skull. He heard Mabel snort in her sleep across the room; she sniffed and hugged her pillow. Dipper slowly and carefully turned his head to face the table where he left the book. He almost wasn't surprised to see that it wasn't there…he could feel its familiar shape on his chest. Dipper wished he could roll over and go back to sleep, but his limbs felt like lead and he knew better than to try moving his head again. All he could do was stare dumbly at the other side of the room.

"Mabel," he whispered, sounding as if he had a cold himself. Mabel didn't move. "Mabel," he tried a little louder, wincing at how much it hurt his head. Mabel snuffled again and rolled over, facing Dipper. Dipper groaned, half from the pain, and half just to get his sister's attention.

Mabel snuggled her pillow tighter, but then her eyes shot open as if she'd just remembered something important.

"Dipper?" She sat up quickly and crawled out of her bed, staggering for a moment before her vision cleared. She shook her head gently and blinked, letting out a soft gasp when she could see again.

"Dipper, you look awful!" Mabel knelt by his bed, "How do you feel?"

"Ugh," Dipper sighed.

"Where's the book?" Mabel asked, noticing its absence from the table.

Dipper forced himself to lift his arm and place it on the left side of his vest. Mabel gently reached under it and pulled out the journal.

"You didn't put that there, did you?" she asked knowingly.

"No," Dipper said weakly.

"This is creeping me out," Mabel muttered, standing up. She held the book for a moment, examining the battered cover. "I'm going to stash this someplace…I think you've held on to it long enough for today."

Dipper didn't utter a word of protest as Mabel descended the stairway from their room. Dipper lay quietly, listening to the sounds all around him. The steady thump of his heart that felt like a hammer on his skull, the creaky stairs as Mabel stepped down them, the whistling of a bird outside. It all made him…sort of sleepy. Dipper soon found his eyes were drooping closed again, and Dipper didn't even try to resist.

Mabel stuffed the journal down her sweater as she stepped into the living room. The TV was still on and was playing the theme song of Horse in A Bookcase. Mabel made her way into the kitchen and stashed the old book behind the broken air conditioner. She had just taken her fingers off the old pages when she heard footsteps approaching from the gift shop of the shack. Mabel didn't know why, but she ducked into the living room and crouched behind the big easy chair.

"Dipper? Mabel?" it was Soos, "Where are you guys?"

Mabel sneezed.

"Oh, there you are," Soos said, peeking over the chair, "Why are you hiding back there?"

"Huh? Oh, I just…dropped something," Mabel said, patting under the chair.

"What was it?" Soos asked, getting on his knees to help look under the furniture.

"Oh, just a quarter," Mabel said waving it off, "What do you need?"

"Right," Soos said, snapping his fingers, "Mr. Pines told me to find you guys, he needs you in the shop. Soos glanced around for a second, "Where's Dipper?"

"Well, Dipper has a really bad headache," Mabel explained, "And I think he's asleep upstairs."

"Huh, he looked fine this morning," Soos said thoughtfully, "Ah well, stuff like that happens, are you going to come?"

Mabel sneezed again, "Uhh…" she said as she thought, "Okay, I guess so, for just a minute." Mabel reluctantly followed Soos back to the Shack, glancing over her shoulder at the stairway to the attic, "Just a minute," she repeated to herself.


	4. When A Leader Falls

_"Okay, I guess so, for just a minute." Mabel reluctantly followed Soos back to the Shack, glancing over her shoulder at the stairway to the attic, "Just a minute," she repeated to herself._

* * *

"Mabel," Stan glanced behind his niece, "Where's your brother?"

"He isn't feeling well," Mabel explained with a sniffle.

"Oh, and I suppose you're feeling just great," Stan rubbed his forehead.

"What do you need?" Mabel asked, impatient to get whatever her Grunkle wanted done and over with.

"Well, some of our signs fell off in the storm yesterday, and I needed the two of you to hang them back up," Stan explained, pulling a box of nails out from under the desk.

"Oh…well," That was perhaps the last thing Mabel wanted to wind up doing. Not because it was a bad job, Mabel enjoyed using the hammer, but doing it alone could take a long time, and if something were to happen to Dipper…

"Can we hold it off for a day or two?" Mabel blurted, "Dipper's got a really bad headache and I wanted to stay with him and make sure he was okay."

There was an awkward moment of silence as Stan wasn't expecting the outburst.

"Plus I have a cold," Mabel added, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"Fine," Stan said with a wave, "You guys go be sick today, I'll find someone else to do it."

"Oh, thank you Grunkle Stan!" Mabel gave her great uncle a squeeze and dashed out of the room.

Grunkle Stan smiled to himself when after Mabel closed the door, but then he noticed some of the crusts had brushed off her sweater onto his jacket.

"Gross," Stan muttered, brushing the globs off into a box labeled "Magic Seeds".

"Hey Mabel," Mabel's sprint was interrupted by Soos as she passed through the Gift Shop.

"Yeah, Soos?" Mabel was wiggling by the door, eager to get back upstairs.

"Is Dipper okay up there, does he need, y'know, a doctor or something?" Soos was clearly concerned.

"Oh," Mabel was a little surprised, "No, it's just a bad headache."

"Well, if it gets any worse you tell us," Wendy said firmly. Mabel assumed that Soos had told her about yesterday's incident. She had to smile as she thought about what Dipper's reaction might be when she told him about Wendy's concern…Maybe she'd have to wait until he felt better.

"Okay guys, I promise," Mabel said, then she made a break for the attic. She almost flung the trapdoor open as she entered their bedroom, but caught herself and opened it slowly. She was surprised to hear not moaning, but a gentle snore coming from Dipper's bed. Mabel tiptoed to where he lay and found he was asleep…and looking much better than before. His face was less pale, and in fact, he looked almost comfortable, curled up on his side. His hat lay awkwardly off to the side of his pillow. Mabel carefully picked it up and placed it on the table where the book had been before.

_The book._

Mabel looked at Dipper once again, but he didn't seem to have the journal with him. Mabel crept back downstairs and peeked behind the air conditioner in the kitchen. The book was still there. Mabel breathed a sigh of relief and headed back towards the attic. As she crossed the living room she heard a sound over her head. It sounded like something hard hitting the floor.

Mabel dashed up the stairs and gasped aloud when she saw Dipper sitting up in bed, covered in sweat and breathing heavily, and the book lying on the ground beside him.

Mabel couldn't speak. For the longest time she stared between the book and her brother. Dipper was still slightly pale and she could tell by the way he rubbed his forehead that he still had a lingering headache. There was absolutely no way that book could be there on the floor.

"Wait here," Mabel dashed back down into the kitchen. She almost tore the air conditioner out of the window and lost the feel in her legs when she realized the book was not there.

"Dipper, how did you get this book?" Mabel was panicked, waving the journal around and pacing all around the attic.

"I don't know, it was just _there,_" Dipper was sitting with his head leaned against the wall, hugging his pillow.

"I was right there! There was no way you could have gone all the way…" she stopped when she was struck with a thought, "Dipper, where did I hide the book?"

"I don't know, Mabel! How would I…" Dipper wrinkled his brow, the way he did when he was thinking, "You…hid it behind the air conditioner…"

Mabel dropped the book. "How…how did you know?" She hoped he would laugh and say it was all a big joke, she hoped it would be all over right then, but Dipper didn't even answer her question.

"I'm scared, Mabel," he whispered, barely audible, "I'm scared."

Mabel didn't know what to do. She stood there dumfounded as a million thoughts raced through her head.

"Me too," she uttered a choked whisper, "I'm scared."

The twins sat together on the back corner of Dipper's bed. Dipper had his arm wrapped around his sister, who was curled up and leaning on his shoulder. The book was still lying where Mabel had dropped it, and the twins watched it warily.

"What should I do?" Mabel whispered. Dipper didn't reply, but rubbed her shoulder where his hand was resting.

"It'll be okay," he assured her.

Mabel unsuccessfully blinked back tears, "How can you say that?" she squeaked, "That book is making you sick, magically following you around, and I never know what to do!" Mabel let out a sob, and then went on, "You've always been in charge. You always know what to do, and it always works out. I would always just get lucky…and now, you're getting hurt and I don't know what to do!"

Dipper winced when his sister started to cry. "Don't say that," he whispered hoarsely. He cleared his throat and continued, "We're a team, I wouldn't have survived the summer if you weren't here…remember Gideon?" Mabel began to cough. "I would have either been ripped apart by scissors or have fallen to my death. You saved my life Mabel."

"Doesn't count…" Mabel muttered.

"That's huge Mabel," Dipper whispered, "You thought fast and made the right choices…Do you remember our first day in Gravity Falls?"

"Norman…I put our lives at risk," Mabel sniffed.

"You saved our butts," Dipper corrected, "If it wasn't for your quick thinking, you would have been married to who-knows-how many gnomes, and I don't even want to know what would have happened to me."

Mabel curled up tighter next to her brother.

"Don't forget…when we were about to be shipped to DC forever, I'd be locked in Washington without you. I think it's much more than luck that gets us through whenever you take lead. When something comes up, you always know what to do when I don't. The truth is, I'm nothing without my sister."

Mabel gazed up at her tired sibling, "You mean it?"

"Every word…from the bottom of my heart," Dipper said with a smile.

"I guess I have to hug you now," Mabel smiled back.

"Gently, yes,"

Mabel wrapped her arms around her brother, who hugged her back.

"Mabel…"

Mabel looked up at her brother and quickly pulled away from her hug. Dipper's face had gone pale and he was nodding off with a pained look on his face.

"Dipper! No, not now!" Mabel grabbed his shoulders and held him up.

Dipper let out a gasp before he slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

I repeat, no pinecest! :(

Okay, this is as far as I've posted on dA, so from now on, I'll post each weekend.

Thanks for reading!


	5. The Diagnosis

_"__Mabel…"_

_Mabel looked up at her brother and quickly pulled away from her hug. Dipper's face had gone pale and he was nodding off with a pained look on his face._

_"__Dipper! No, not now!" Mabel grabbed his shoulders and held him up. _

_Dipper let out a gasp before he slipped into unconsciousness._

* * *

"I think he's coming to."

"Sh, he knows that."

"Dipper, can you hear me?"

Dipper awoke to see four familiar faces, and one he didn't recognize.

"Dipper! You're awake!" Mabel's cheeks were tear-streaked, but she was smiling.

"Thank goodness!" That was Soos.

"How ya feeling?" Grunkle Stan looked strangely concerned.

"We were worried," under normal circumstances, Dipper would have blushed to see Wendy look caringly at him like that.

"Stay still son," that was the face Dipper didn't recognize.

Stan must have read Dipper's confused expression, "You passed out and your sister wouldn't let up until we called a doctor," he explained.

"In a panic…" the man muttered, not looking up from whatever he was doing…Dipper couldn't see, "How are you feeling?"

Now that Dipper had a second to think, he realized how truly terrible he felt, "Awful," he whispered weakly.

"I see," the man said, using a pillow to prop Dipper's head up. Dipper winced; his headache seemed to have returned.

"Your sister claims you have memory loss, headaches, physical weakness, apparently loss of breath, and this is the first time you've blacked out, correct?"

"Yes," Dipper whispered.

"Are you experiencing pain anywhere else, your chest, your stomach, your limbs?" the doctor urged.

"Chest," Dipper couldn't seem to manage more than one word at a time... but what really was nagging him was wondering how much Mabel told everyone…did she mention the book?

The doctor slipped Dipper's shirt up and touched it gently. Dipper unsuccessfully stifled an abrupt cry.

"What are you feeling? Sensitivity? Burning? Does something feel broken?" the doctor went on, perfectly calm.

"Hurts," Dipper squeaked, trying not to cry. He had never felt so bad in his life. He felt like something heavy was sitting on him…something heavy and on fire…and was also in his head. Dipper quickly shook off that picture.

"Hmm, anything else?" Dipper almost wished the doctor wasn't so relaxed, it just made him hurt worse.

"No."

"I see… Mr. Pines, may I speak with you for a moment?" Stan cast a worried look at his nephew, then led the younger man out of the attic. The three remaining came and stood or knelt next to Dipper. No one knew what to say.

"Hey," Dipper smiled weakly.

Instantly, Mabel broke down and sobbed, resting her head on Dipper's bed. Wendy awkwardly rubbed her back.

"Wha'd you get yourself into there?" Wendy asked, trying to sound optimistic.

"Beavers," Dipper whispered.

"Really?" Wendy asked, beginning to wonder if hallucinations were a new symptom.

"No," Dipper tried to smile.

"Heh," Soos laughed sadly, "I love this guy."

"What…happen..," Dipper said slowly.

"You passed out, and Mabel came running down into the Shack," Soos explained, "She grabbed Mr. Pines and took him up to the attic. Mr. Pines came back and called a doctor. You've been out for…" Soos checked his watch, "6 hours".

Dipper hadn't noticed before, but the room was lit by several lanterns, and the rest was dark. He looked down at his crying sister and gently reached to touch her hair. Mabel choked down her sobs and forced herself to look her brother in the eye. Dipper tried to smile, and Mabel tried to smile back.

"You want a minute with your sister?" Wendy asked, getting up.

"Yeah," Dipper whispered, not taking his eyes off his twin. Wendy and Soos stepped downstairs, closing the trapdoor behind them.

"Dipper! I was so worried! You wouldn't wake up, so I told Grunkle Stan and he called a doctor, but you still wouldn't wake up!" Mabel's words came out so quickly, Dipper's sluggish mind could hardly make out the words. Dipper wished he could say something…but couldn't.

Mabel reached into her sweater and pulled out the red book, "I didn't tell anyone, and I made sure you didn't have it," she whispered.

"Mabel…"Dipper forced the words to come out, "don't…carry…the book… with…you."

Mabel slipped the book back into her sweater, "I won't…I'll hide it again…It's what a leader would do, right?" Mabel looked for a reaction from her brother, but saw only confusion.

"You don't remember do you?" Mabel's voice dropped with her head.

"What?"

"You talked about…how we need each other, and you said….you said you needed me."

Dipper wished he remembered. He wanted nothing more in the world at that moment then to remember.

"The last thing you remember is walking up breathless, sweaty, and with a headache, isn't it?" Mabel continued, not looking up.

Dipper couldn't stop the tear that escaped his eye. Mabel reached up and wiped it away.

"Did you mean it?" Mabel whispered.

"Yes," Dipper said quickly, "I do…need you…"

Mabel took Dipper's hand and held it to her cheek, "I need you too," she whispered, "That's why you can't go."

"I'm…not…go…ing…anywhere," Dipper managed to say.

"Excuse me," both Mabel and Dipper were startled when the doctor reappeared through the trap door, "Let's not give your brother a cold, shall we?"

Mabel looked at Dipper and slowly stepped back. Dipper was about to protest, but the doctor interrupted him.

"I was only going to tell this to your grandfather," the doctor began.

"Great Uncle," Mabel muttered from her bed.

"…But he didn't look like he was about to take anything I said seriously. The truth is, I don't know what's wrong with you. I've never seen anything like it. It wouldn't appear contagious, but I would suggest that the less people who visit you, the better. All I can say is to get some rest and see if you start feeling better."

"And if he doesn't?" Mabel butted in sourly.

"Then I don't know how to help you," the doctor said, getting up. Without another word, he turned and walked down the stairs.

"Jerk," Mabel muttered, turning to face the wall.

Nobody else came back upstairs that night, presumably, they were all asleep. Mabel was surprised to find that Dipper fell asleep before she did. She crept over to his bed. He still looked uncomfortable, even in his sleep. Mabel took the '3' journal out of her sweater drawer and looked back at her brother. Whenever he had the book, he didn't seem to have any blackouts, but when he did have the book, it gave him a headache…but when he did have the book, he usually woke up abruptly. Mabel debated in her head, but eventually made up her mind. She laid the book carefully so it was partially resting on Dipper. She held her breath as Dipper moaned and rolled over, wrapping his body around the journal, but he didn't wake up. Mabel breathed a sigh of relief and crept back into her bed, but it was a long time before she got any sleep.

Mabel had expected to wake up to a _thump_ of the book hitting the floor, and the light gasps of her brother, but not tonight. When she had finally closed her eyes, Mabel was awoken by a scream.


	6. Enter the Enemy

_Mabel had expected to wake up to a thump of the book hitting the floor, and the light gasps of her brother, but not tonight. When she had finally closed her eyes, Mabel was awoken by a scream._

Mabel fell out of her bed as she scrambled to get to her brother's side.

"Dipper! Dipper?"

Dipper was shaking from head to toe, all the color was gone from his face, and his breaths came in short gasps.

"Dipper, what happened?" Mabel resisted the urge to shake him until he told her everything.

"Th-the b-book! The B-book!" Dipper gasped over and over. Mabel didn't even have to look as she scooped the journal off the ground and showed it to Dipper.

"No!" Dipper jumped back. "Get rid of it!" Tears were streaming down his face and his look became one of pure terror when he saw the book. Mabel quickly dropped the book and kicked it under her bed.

"Dipper, what happened?" Mabel asked urgently.

Dipper shivered, curled up against the wall. Mabel winced when she heard a sob.

"Hey, you look much better today…" She offered slowly.

Dipper bit his lip. She had no idea.

_Everything was dark, but Dipper could see his hand in front of his face. In fact, he could see his whole self just as easily as in the light. He was fully dressed and he felt….fine. No headaches, chest pain, no weakness, in fact he felt kind of floaty. Realization hit Dipper. "Mabel! Mabel!" he called over and over, with no reply._

_"__I can't be dead," he whispered, curling up in the air._

_"__You're not," Dipper spun to find the source of the unfamiliar voice, but there wasn't anyone there._

_"__Who's there?" He demanded nervously._

_"__Do not worry, I am healing your body," the voice came again._

_"__I don't need your healing," Dipper tried to sound strong, but a sinking feeling in his gut prevented it._

_"__Oh, but you do," the voice assured him, "If it wasn't for me, you'd be dead."_

_"__Why is this happening?" Dipper asked the voice, "What's wrong with me?"_

_"__Nothing is wrong, Dipper Pines, you are just taking a while to adjust."_

_"__Adjust to what? Excruciating pain?"_

_"__Adjust to being me."_

_Dipper thought he could make out a shape in the blackness. It couldn't be human, but it was most certainly moving._

_"__What if I don't want to be you?" Dipper said firmly._

_"__Pity. There's no avoiding it, you are the keeper of the book, and because your _scutum _is gone, you now belong to me."_

_"__My what?"_

_"__You are going to make for a very great vessel," the voice said. Dipper suddenly felt as if he was being looked over and touched. He spun around, but saw nothing._

_"__Stop hiding and show yourself!" Dipper sounded less confident than scared, but he balled his fists anyway._

_"__If you insist."_

_The shape Dipper had noticed earlier began to absorb colors and become visible; Dipper forgot anything he was thinking before as he stared at the strange creature. It was in the shape and the color of a pyramid, only with a pair of spindly arms and legs, a small tie, a tall hat on its head, and a single eye. Dipper wasn't sure if he should laugh or pinch himself awake first._

_"__Why should I be afraid of you?" he asked the knee-high creature._

_"__You shouldn't," the pyramid explained, "You should learn to embrace me as your master."_

_Dipper laughed, and despite the fact he was probably asleep, it felt good, "Maybe I should learn to embrace you as my paperweight," Dipper laughed again. Suddenly, he stopped and fell to his knees, arms wrapped tightly around his middle. He felt as if a wave of pain had crashed over him, and another, and another, Dipper was lurching over gasping for breath._

_"__This, Dipper Pines, is the feeling of a slow and painful death," The pyramid seemed to be growing as it spoke, "This is what you feel without me," The pyramid grew taller and taller, it towered over Dipper, but still continued to grow. "And this!" The pyramid lifted his arms and the dark world lit up to reveal a horrific scene. Dipper and the pyramid were standing over a massive span of boiling red liquid, from which monsters of unimaginable sizes and terrible faces emerged and roared so loud that Dipper cried out._

_"__This is where I'll send you, your great uncle," the pyramid towered way over the tallest of the creatures, but Dipper could still see the intense glare from its one eye, "Your friends, your parents,"_

_"__Stop!" Dipper cried out, holding his head._

_"__Your grandparents, your Soos, your Wendy,"_

_"__No! Please, stop!"_

_"__And into the deepest darkest depths, I will send your precious,"_

_"__Don't"_

_"__Twin"_

_"__Stop!"_

_"__Sister."_

_"__NO!" Dipper screamed at the top of his lungs, standing up despite the pain that raged through his body. "I will never become like you! I will never call you master! I will not stand here and let you command me! And I will NOT," Dipper paused a glared way up at the creature, "Let you threaten my sister!"_

_"__So be it….I will be forced to break you. Come back when you change your mind," The pyramid faded and vanished as he spoke. Dipper breathed out as the pain left his body, but his troubles weren't over. All the scaly creatures in the boiling ocean turned to the shaking boy, moving closer and closer."_

_"__NO!" Dipper let out one final scream before the largest of the monsters bent down and consumed Dipper and the ground he was standing on whole._

The scene played over and over in Dipper's mind as he tried desperately to calm down.

"Dipper please, what's wrong?" Mabel begged, on the verge of breaking down.

"Just…a bad dream," Dipper knew it was a lie. It was so much more than just a bad dream…it was a threat. A threat to his health, his home, and everything he loved. He could almost hear the creature from his dream mocking him in his head, "_There's no escape… you're mine."_

"About…the book?" Mabel glanced at her bed.

"Yeah…the book." Dipper closed his eyes tight. He needed to think...surely somewhere there was a clue…a loophole, anything to get him out of his jam.

"No," Dipper whispered aloud. Mabel looked at him sideways.

_I need someone to save me._

"No, it wasn't just a nightmare," Dipper confessed, "It was a message."

Dipper told Mabel everything. More than once he had to go back and say things he'd left out, but he told her his entire dream, every word as he remembered it, and every picture that was still in his head.

Mabel was speechless.

"But it explains a lot," Dipper continued, "That must be why I'd wake up in the middle of the night like that, and why I would get sick when the book wasn't around."

"I don't understand," Mabel said slowly.

"The pyramid in my dream, it _is _the book, or at least, it lives inside it, and somehow, somehow it's trying to make _me_ become the book too," Dipper said thoughtfully, "When I'm asleep and have the book with me, it must be how it communicates. I'll bet it was in my dreams before, but I just forgot because I didn't have the book. But now, I remember everything. It must have already started doing…whatever it was trying to do to me. It said something about me becoming its vessel."

"But _why_?" Mabel asked, perplexed, "Why does it want you to become the book? How does it benefit him? And why did it choose you?"

"Because I found the book!" despite the horrible situation, Dipper couldn't help but get excited when things came together, "Mabel, I'll bet that book was hidden in the woods waiting for someone to find it, for this very purpose!"

"But we've had this book for weeks, why did nothing happen before?" Mabel still couldn't wrap her mind around everything that was going on.

"I don't know, but it's happening now," Dipper banged his fist on his opposite palm, "The…thing in my dream wants me to become the book, and it won't stop for anything until it does, but that does put us at an advantage…if he wants me that bad, he can't kill me. In fact," Dipper looked himself over, "He even had to heal me just then."

"So you're totally fine now?" Mabel asked, scratching her head.

"I guess so, but I wouldn't count on it lasting," Dipper murmured, recalling the haunting promises of the pyramid to break him if he refused to submit.

"But…how do we stop something that's in your head?" Mabel asked, waving her arms.

"But it's not just in my head…" Dipper started to say. Mabel looked over at her bed, but Dipper pulled the book out of his vest.

"It's in here," he said, tapping the cover. Suddenly, Dipper let out a sharp cry and dropped the book, cradling the hand that had been holding the journal.

"Dipper! What just happened?" Mabel asked urgently.

Dipper's hand felt like someone was squeezing it just to the point where it wouldn't break his bones, and a voice echoed in his head.

_I will break you_

* * *

Hello!

I'd like to thank HeartOfAKid and BitterKnitter for thier reviews! Thanks guys!

Also a thanks to 10catt438 for adding my story to thier favorites!

Thanks everyone!

Anyway, this is my favorite chapter so far, I hope you enjoyed it!


	7. Horribly Wrong

_Dipper's hand felt like someone was squeezing it just to the point where it wouldn't break his bones, and a voice echoed in his head._

_"__I will break you"_

* * *

Mabel tiptoed through the living room, any noises she made drowned out by either the 80's horror movie on the TV, or Grunkle Stan's snoring from the easy chair. That would explain how he slept through the noise upstairs.

Dipper had told her to take the book away, if not just for a minute, because he said the book was talking to him. Mabel told him she'd stash it downstairs. She hated lying to her brother, but she was fed up with watching him suffer. Mabel had slipped a sweater on and stole into the kitchen, took a small box down from one of the cupboards, then stepped outside, as quietly she could with the creaky door. It was still dark out, and Mabel could barely see where she was going, but she stumbled her way behind the shack until she found the place she was looking for. She opened the box she was carrying and pulled out a match. She struck it to reveal a small pile of burnt logs surrounded by stones: the fire pit. Mabel set the match inside the circle and lit another one as the first went out, then she pulled the book out of her sweater. She looked the book over one last time, watching the gold colored parts glitter in the light of the fire, then she placed the book in the pit and touched the match to it.

Mabel watched the little flame slowly devour the yellowed pages of the journal with a scowl on her face. How she hated that book. It should have felt good to watch the paper burn, but all Mabel felt was the hatred for all the pain that book had caused her brother. She watched until the book was reduced to ash, but even then the book continued to taunt her. Mabel stuck her slippered foot into the fire pit and stepped down hard on the ashes, kicking them around. She frowned at the pit one last time before she carefully made her way back inside.

"MABEL! WHERE ARE YOU?" Mabel was shocked to hear the panicked voice of…

"Grunkle Stan?" Mabel picked up her walk to a run. She tripped over what she assumed to be a stump, but she scrambled back up, running around to the front of the building.

"MABEL!"

Mabel almost took the front door down as she burst into the Shack.

"GRUNKLE STAN?" Mabel shouted, startling her great uncle, who happened to be directly in front of the door, holding a phone.

"Mabel! Thank goodness, you're alright!" Stan exclaimed, wrapping his free arm around his niece, but with his other hand, he dialed a number into the phone…a three digit number.

"Grunkle Stan?" Mabel's eyes went wide.

Stan stood up and held the phone to his ear, "Yes, hello? This is Stan Pines…yes again…shut up and let me talk!"

Mabel had never seen Stan so upset.

"Get your butt over her right now! I very well know what time it is, but my nephew…"

Mabel didn't need to hear another word. In a flash, she was up the stairs and flinging open the trap door.

"Dipper!" she screamed. Dipper was lying on his back on the floor, unmoving. Mabel leaped onto her knees by his side and gasped. His eyes were open wide, staring at nothing, and his jaw was slack.

"No! Dipper, say something!" Mabel cried, seizing his shoulders. She gasped and withdrew…he was beginning to feel cold.

"NO!" Mabel wrapped her arms around his back and laid her head on his still chest, "NO! DIPPER!"

* * *

Dun-dun-dun!

Okay, a heads up guys, I'm trying to come up with a title for my story, so when I (finally) think of one, this story will be going by a different name, just so you know.

Oh yeah, I also bumped the story up to a T rating because there are a few brief moments with violence.


	8. Saving You Is Saving Me

_"__No! Dipper, say something!" Mabel cried, seizing his shoulders. She gasped and withdrew…he was beginning to feel cold._

_"__NO!" Mabel wrapped her arms around his back and laid her head on his still chest, "NO! DIPPER!"_

* * *

Dipper was dreaming again. It was the same black scene, with the same mysterious pyramid-man, who had shrank back down to knee-height.

"Back so soon?" It asked, but it sounded more like a statement.

"No blockhead, I'm on Jupiter," Dipper was surprised at the sarcasm that came out of his mouth. He would have expected to be afraid of the tiny terror that was the pyramid, but right now, he wanted nothing to do with it, "Wait, why are you flickering?"

The pyramid was, in fact visibly blinking and blurring, like a television station that didn't come in right. It sighed and spoke, "You're meddling sister seems to have put both our lives at risk."

"Huh? How?"

"She burned the book."

Dipper's jaw dropped. _Burned the book? _"What? Why?"

The pyramid didn't reply.

"What happens now?" Dipper took a seat in midair. He felt strangely familiar with the pyramid…when it wasn't threatening his existence.

"What happens now is that I have to concentrate all my efforts on restoring it," the pyramid muttered, lifting a hand to his head….area.

"Okay…so if the book is burned…why are you still here? And why am I here?"

"The book is beyond destruction now," the creature explained with a wave, "When you first began becoming the book, it lost its ability to vanish."

"So that's why the book keeps following me around," Dipper said, snapping his fingers.

"Yes, and the only way to kill the book, would be to kill you."

"Hah, I knew it! You're worthless without me!" Dipper did a little dance in the air, looking absolutely ridiculous. "You couldn't kill me if you wanted to!"

"What? Oh, that's not a problem, you're dead."

"What?" Dipper's arms dropped by his sides, "No, you're lying, you just said if I died the book would die, and by extension, you being the book, you would die."

"A human always has a few minutes after they die for a chance at coming back," the pyramid said. Its eye was closed and it held its fingers to its forehead area.

"I still don't believe you," Dipper said, sounding less confident than before.

"Listen you idiot!" the pyramid snapped, stopping whatever it was doing to glare at him, "I have exactly 19 minutes 27 seconds and counting to give the paramedics a chance at reviving you, so unless you want to stay dead forever, I suggest you shut up!"

Dipper froze. It felt as if all of his stomach had hit the floor.

"Dead?" was all he said

_19 minutes 17 seconds_

_16_

_15_

_14_

* * *

Mabel hadn't stopped crying. When Stan found her upstairs by her brother, he told her to wait downstairs and stay out of the way when the paramedics showed. Mabel curled up in her sweater under the basement stairs, and there she stayed. Eventually she heard the footsteps and shouts overhead, but she still stayed where she was. Even when the sirens for the ambulance came back on and faded away, Mabel didn't move. The house was dead silent with only the exception of Mabel's sobs.

It wasn't long before she heard footsteps upstairs again, and a familiar voice calling her name.

"Mabel? Are you in here?" It was Soos.

"No," Mabel whispered to herself.

"Mabel?" Mabel didn't reply to Soos's calls, she stayed where she was, trying to calm herself down, and failing miserably.

Finally, Soos came down to the basement, and it wasn't hard to follow the sound of Mabel's sobs under the stairs. Soos didn't say a word as he sat himself down next to the crying girl. He hugged her to his side and kept silent as Mabel cried into her sweater.

"Uh…you okay?" Soos asked once she started calming down.

"No, I'm not okay!" Mabel squeaked, bursting into a fresh stream of tears, "Dipper might be dead!" curled tighter against Soos as the sobs racked her body, "And it's all my fault," she added with a whisper.

Soos didn't seem to catch the last part, "It's going to be okay, Mabel," he said, his voice beginning to break, "Dipper's going to be fine."

Mabel wanted to scream, "_No he's not! I killed him myself! I didn't mean to, but I did!" _Even just thinking it in her head caused her to cry harder. It was clear Soos was in an awkward situation, of course, anyone in his place would be, so all he did was sit with Mabel in silence, and try not to cry too.

* * *

Dipper pulled his knees up to his chin. It felt like hours had gone by in silence, but it couldn't have been any more than 19 minutes. The pyramid thing was still facing away from him, focused intently on saving Dipper, and by extension, the book. He was flickering before, but he seemed to be going out more and more often. In the silence, Dipper was forced to confront the thoughts that he'd been trying to push out of his mind.

_What will happen to me? _Dipper noticed that like the pyramid, he too was beginning to flicker in and out. If he died, he had no idea what would happen. Would he be trapped in this dream world with the pyramid forever? Dipper shuddered at the thought, recalling his first encounter with the creature.

_What would happen to Mabel?_ Dipper bit his lip. Over the summer, the twins had constantly been saving each other's lives, and if he wasn't there…Dipper didn't want to think about it… And what about everybody else? Would they miss him? Dipper could think of a few he was pretty sure wouldn't. Who would show up for the funeral?

Dipper shook his head, as if to clear the thoughts.

"How much longer?" he whispered aloud.

"3 minutes," the pyramid growled, "Idiot doctors finally showed up."

Dipper took a shaky breath. _3 minutes._ If nothing happened, he would be dead in 3 minutes. At least help had arrived….there was still a chance. The countdown echoed in his head…

2:54

2:53

2:52


	9. Three Minutes

_Dipper took a shaky breath. 3 minutes. If nothing happened, he would be dead in 3 minutes. At least help had arrived….there was still a chance. The countdown echoed in his head…_

_2:54_

_2:53_

_2:52_

* * *

The ambulance probably had woken the entire town of Gravity Falls, but most of the inhabitants rolled over and covered their ears, and some poked their heads out of the windows to see if they could figure out where it was going. Only one person got up and dressed in a hurry. Wendy threw a jacket on over her outfit and slipped on her boots. She made hardly a sound as she made her way to the door, not like her family could hear her over their own thunderous snoring. Quietly, she slipped outside and yanked her younger brother's bike onto the road and peddled out into the night.

Wendy hoped she was wrong, but she was almost certain she knew exactly where that ambulance was going.

"Mr. Stan Pines?"

Stan stood up from his uncomfortable waiting room chair, "That's me," he said quickly.

"Please follow me," the nurse said, walking out of the room.

Stan had to control himself to keep from running as he followed the nurse.

_Please be okay…Please be okay_

* * *

Wendy knocked on the front door of the Mystery Shack, but the door swung open.

"Hello, anybody home?" she called. All the lights were on, but there was nobody around.

"Guys? It's Wendy!" she tried again, but there was no reply. Wendy walked through the Shack to the house portion of the building.

"Hello? Is everyone okay?" she called as she walked into the living room. The TV was still on, and Wendy switched it off.

"Guys?" Wendy called up the stairs. By then she was fairly certain that nobody was home. Under normal circumstances, she would have just shrugged and gone back home, but she had a nagging feeling that something was up. Wendy glanced around before heading up the stairs. There was a door open and Wendy peeked through it.

"Must be the kids' room," she muttered aloud, to break the silence. The beds were a mess and Dipper's hat was lying in the middle of the floor. Wendy climbed into the attic and grabbed the hat. It was strange to see it just lying there, considering how much Dipper wore it. Wendy glanced around the room, but there were no other clues as to what may have happened. Wendy went back down the stairs, hat still in hand. She peered all around the house, and when she found the basement door wide open she stuck her head through the doorframe and looked around. It was mostly dark, but there was a light coming from below.

"Hello? Is anybody down there?" she called.

"Wendy?" said a voice.

"Soos? Is that you?"

"Yeah, and Mabel's here too."

Wendy stepped down the stairs and found the light was coming from under the stairs, where Soos had a lantern on one side and sobbing ball of knitwear on the other.

"Mabel?" Wendy was surprised to see the girl so distraught. Usually there wasn't a thing in the world that could bring her down, "What's the matter?"

Soos placed a finger to his lips, "Did Mr. Pines not tell you?"

"Tell me what? I heard sirens and I came to see if everything was okay,"

Soos looked at the floor.

"Soos, what's wrong?"

"It's Dipper."

* * *

Dipper was in a sweat. He was probably off count, but Dipper estimated that he had 59 seconds left.

"Can you resurrect me any faster?" he begged the pyramid, wringing his hands.

The pyramid didn't replay.

Dipper reached up to touch his hat, a nervous habit, but found it wasn't there. Probably because he wasn't wearing it when he…well…died.

Dipper wished he could spit the word out of his mind.

"_I'm not dead yet!" _he told himself,"_…not yet."_

* * *

Soos told Wendy as much as he knew about the incident, and Wendy was unable to hide her shock.

"But…why? He's just a kid?" Wendy said, clutching Dipper's hat to her chest.

"Is that…his hat?" Mabel whispered from her curled up ball.

"Huh?" Wendy looked down to see she did in fact have the hat in her hands, "Oh, I guess it is."

Mabel stretched out her hand towards the object, and Wendy placed it in her hand. Mabel brought it close, wiping her eyes, and looked it over.

"Where'd you find it?" Mabel asked softly.

"It was…in your room," Wendy said awkwardly, realizing that she had actually kind of broken in to their house.

Mabel didn't seem to notice, "It's not his hat," she whispered tiredly.

"What?" Soos and Wendy looked at her with their brows wrinkled.

"It's not Dipper's hat…"Mabel said again, "Dipper's hat has a little piece of paper in it." Mabel traced her finger around the inner seam of the hat, where a small slip of paper would have fit nicely, "It has your phone number on it."

Wendy tried not to laugh.

"Okay," she said, dead serious, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," Mabel wiped her nose on her sleeve, "That I have a crazy idea."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Dipper shivered. Despite the sweat that covered his body, he was so cold he was going numb.

"Is it going to work?" For nineteen minutes Dipper had been floating in his hallow dreamscape, the nineteen longest minutes of his life.

"I'm beginning to wonder," the pyramid muttered.

_So this is it? _

Dipper squeezed his eyes shut.

_Is this my farewell to everyone? Mom and Dad, Grunkle Stan, Wendy, Soos, Mabel?_

A tear fell out of Dipper's eye.

_Mabel._

As he whispered her name, he suddenly convulsed, as if something had punched him in the chest.

"What? What just happened?" He gasped, then convulsed again.

"Wait, what did you just do?" The pyramid man asked, clearly getting excited.

"I said…Mabel's name," Dipper couldn't stop the spasms that came like a slow heartbeat…and it felt horrible.

"Say it again!" The pyramid shouted, "Keep saying it!"

"Mabel," Dipper gasped, "Mabel, Mabel," he couldn't breathe, "Is this death?" he whispered.

The pyramid clapped its hands once, "No, it's life, you, Dipper Pines, have found a reason to survive!"

* * *

Stan let out a huge sigh of relief when he was taken into the room where Dipper lay. Dipper was still unconscious, but he had a steadily beeping heart monitor. Stan slumped down into a chair by the hospital bed and took his nephew's hand.

_"_Thank you," he whispered to no one in particular, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."


	10. Waking Up to A Nightmare

_"__Say it again!" The pyramid shouted, "Keep saying it!"_

_"__Mabel," Dipper gasped, "Mabel, Mabel," he couldn't breathe, "Is this death?" he whispered._

_The pyramid clapped its hands once, "No, it's life! You, Dipper Pines, have found a reason to survive!"_

* * *

The painful convulsions had stopped, but Dipper found he was still floating in his empty dream world with the little pyramid.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at his hands, which had stopped blinking in and out, "Did it not work?"

"No, it worked," the pyramid said with a wave, "You're just still unconscious."

Dipper breathed out a huge sigh of relief, "So I'm fine then?"

"Yes… and the book is as well."

There was a pause.

"Umm…so, when do I wake up?" Dipper asked, glancing around the vacant space surrounding him.

* * *

It was Wendy who heard the phone ringing upstairs.

"Hello?" the threesome had been up the stairs and around the phone in a split second, but Wendy had reached the receiver first.

Soos and Mabel could hear Grunkle Stan on the other end, but couldn't make out what he was saying.

"It's Wendy," Wendy said.

There were more noises at the other end.

"No, I'm at the Shack, what were you going to say?"

More noises.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Wendy exclaimed, brightening up, "Okay, okay, I'll tell them, bye." Wendy set down the phone and took a deep breath.

"Dipper's going to be okay!" she said so quickly it could have been mistaken for one word.

"Yes! I told you so!" Soos shouted, pumping his fist, then offering Mabel a high five, but Mabel was already wrapped around Wendy in a tight hug, tears streaming down her face.

"Uhh…" Wendy said, looking to Soos for help.

Soos made a motion that indicated Wendy should hug her back.

Wendy awkwardly wrapped her arms around Mabel, looking at Soos the whole time. Soos gave her thumbs up.

"Thank you," Mabel whispered, "Thank you, Thank you, thank you."

* * *

Dipper shot up with a gasp.

"Dipper!" there was a chorus of voices that shouted his name. Dipper glanced around to see he was surrounded by familiar faces in an unfamiliar place.

"Uhh…" Dipper glanced around. He had a feeling he should know where he was, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Am I…in a hospital?"

"It's a long story kid," Stan said quickly, "How ya feeling?"

"I feel…fine," Dipper said slowly, "What's going on?"

"Dude, you almost died on us!" Soos said, waving his arms.

"What…died?"

Wendy elbowed Soos in the arm.

"UF! I mean, we were really worried," Soos corrected, rubbing his arm.

"How did I…" Dipper broke off and placed a hand to his forehead with a groan.

"Hey, are you okay?" Wendy asked with concern.

"Yeah…a headache," Dipper said slowly, "Can I talk with Mabel for a second?"

Mabel had been standing guiltily behind the others, watching from a distance. She started when Dipper said her name.

"Sure, sure," Stan said, getting up, "The doctors are probably going to want to look at you again though."

Soos, Stan, and Wendy one by one got up and stepped out of the room, not without a backwards glance at the twins.

"Dipper I…" Mabel blurted as soon as the door was closed.

"Mabel," Dipper interrupted, rubbing his head, "Did you…burn the book?"

Mabel bit her lip and hung her head, "Yes," she whispered.

"Oh…" There was a pause, "Did I…did I die?"

"Your heart stopped, yes, but the doctors brought you back," Mabel said, not looking up.

Dipper looked sadly at his sister, then slid away from her in the bed. "Mabel," he said softly. Mabel looked up, and a tear fell from her eye. Dipper patted the bed beside him and Mabel climbed up next to him.

"Dipper, I'm sorry!" Mabel blurted, tears flowing down her face, "I was stupid and I made a bad decision, and you almost died because of it! I'm so sorry!"

"Mabel, it's over," Dipper stopped her, "I'm okay. It's all behind us now."

Mabel sniffled and exhaled shakily.

"I think we're running out of time," Dipper said, looking away, "The pyramid…"

"Who?"

Dipper paused for a second, "The book…the book is talking to me…in my thoughts, even when I'm not asleep."

Mabel looked at him sideways.

"I didn't remember my dream just now…" Dipper explained, "But there's a voice in my head, the same voice as in my dreams, and it's talking to me."

"What does it say?"

"It told me about what happened…how you…the book got burned, and how I…died…and that it brought me back just now."

"But I burned the book! It's gone!" Mabel protested, "How is it still talking to you?"

Dipper reached under the sheets and pulled out the tattered volume.

"No!" Mabel cried, slamming her fists on the bed.

"The book and I are connected somehow…If I die, the book will be gone forever, and if the book dies…I guess I got lucky this time."

Dipper paused and scowled, "Shut up," he muttered.

"What?" Mabel asked, unsure of how she should respond.

"Huh? Oh," Dipper rubbed his forehead, "The book has a sense of sarcasm."

"Wait, it was talking to you just now?" Mabel asked holding up her hands.

"Yeah," Dipper said slowly.

"Oh…can you talk back?"

Dipper was silent for a moment, and then he held his head and groaned.

"I can, but whenever it says something, it hurts my head," Dipper explained. "Ow!" he let out a sharp cry, "Shut up!"

_"__Don't worry Dipper, once you embrace your position as the book, the pain will go away,"_

Dipper held his head in his hands as the voice spoke.

_"__Stop fighting it. You will become me, it's unavoidable, you might as well make it less painful."_

_"__I'm not going to become you!" _Dipper screamed in his thoughts, _"I don't care what you do to me, I will not become your slave!"_

_"__You have no choice!" _the pyramid shouted back, causing an extra painful throb in Dipper's head, _"You already belong to me!"_

The voice filled Dipper's ears as he lurched over in the bed, he couldn't hear Mabel shout his name, or the others as they burst into the room. His vision flashed between the blue-green sheets below him and a world of darkness, with long-necked creatures screaming and biting at him, all with the pyramid, tall as a skyscraper watching and shouting, _"You belong to me!"_

* * *

Mabel curled up, shivering horribly in the waiting room chair. Her great uncle had her hugged to his side, and Wendy and Soos sat together in silence. There were others in the room, an elderly couple, holding hands, and a handful of parents with little children playing on the floor around them. Mabel barely noticed the sounds of the kids playing with the wooden trains, or the snoring of a man in one chair, she could only hear the screams as the awful scene played over and over in her head.

_"__Shut up!" Dipper shouted, covering his ears._

_"__Dipper?" Mabel was concerned now, but Dipper didn't seem to hear her._

_Dipper cried out and lurched over in the bed, gasping for breath._

_"__Dipper! Dipper, what's going on?" Mabel screamed. Stan, Soos, and Wendy burst into the room._

_"__Mabel? Dipper?" Stan shouted, growing more and more perplexed as he examined the situation._

_Dipper screamed and Stan rushed over to the bedside._

_"__Mabel, what's wrong?"_

_"__I don't know! He said there was a voice in his head, and that it was giving him a headache, and then this!" Mabel cried._

_"__Soos! Don't just stand there, get a doctor!" Stan shouted._

_"__Yes sir!" Soos didn't even make it out the door before a small group of people clad in scrubs burst into the room._

_"__What happened here?" one demanded._

_"__We don't know! He started acting up all of a sudden!" Stan shouted, pulling Mabel out from the bed._

_"__Never! Never!" Dipper screamed shaking violently, "Stop! Leave me alone!" He gasped and struggled against nothing._

_"__Clear out!" one of the doctors ordered, motioning to the visitors, "Get out, we'll handle this!"_

_Two doctors held either of Dipper's arms, but he still kicked and screamed in agony, shouting to something that wasn't there. Mabel gasped as her great uncle dragged her out of the room. Dipper's gaze stared off blindly, but there was no mistaking the fear in his eyes. _

_"__Dipper!" Mabel let out one last scream before the door to the room was slammed shut._

* * *

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and/or favorited my story!

Not Guest Matt. Dude, read the author's notes. They're really short, and would have explained everything! There's no need to call names!


	11. After Hours

_The voice filled Dipper's ears as he lurched over in the bed, he couldn't hear Mabel shout his name, or the others as they burst into the room. His vision flashed between the blue-green sheets below him and a world of darkness, with long-necked creatures screaming and biting at him, all with the pyramid, tall as a skyscraper watching and shouting, "You belong to me!"_

* * *

"Excuse me, sir?" Grunkle Stan was gently shaken awake by the same slightly chubby nurse that had lead him to Dipper's room before.

"Whazit? I wasn't asleep!" Stan shouted, sitting up quickly.

"Mr. Pines, is it?" the nurse asked gently.

"Yeah, that's me," Stan glanced around before remembering where he was, "How's my nephew?"

"Mr. Pines, visiting hours are over, I'm going to have to ask you to go home now," the nurse said.

"How is my nephew?" Stan repeated forcefully.

"Grunkle Stan?" Stan looked down to see that his niece had been asleep next to him. Wendy and Soos were nowhere to be seen.

"He'll be fine, you will probably be able to visit tomorrow," the nurse said, trying to pull the old man up.

"No," Stan said, yanking his arm away, "Let me see him now."

"Mr. Pines, I can't let you do that, you'll have to come back tomorrow,"

"Just for a second, let me see him," Stan said firmly.

"I'm afraid I can't do that! You'll have to come by tomorrow!" the nurse said, folding her arms.

Stan and the nurse glared hard at each other.

"Fine, I'll go, but I'll be back tomorrow!" Stan said, getting up, "C'mon Mabel."

The two left the waiting room and stepped into the elevator.

Mabel sniffed and held onto his arm as the door closed, "I wish I could see him," she whispered.

"We will," Stan said, "I said we'd go, but I didn't say where."

Mabel leaned sleepily on her great uncle. She had expected so much.

It was fairly easy getting past all of the doctors; Stan just pretended to be hopelessly lost and asked where the restroom was every time. It wasn't long before they reached the door to the room where they last saw Dipper, but when they got there, both of their jaws dropped in shock: Dipper wasn't there.

* * *

"Where's my nephew?" Stan demanded the second a nurse appeared in the hallway.

"Sir, visitors hours are ove-"

"Where's my nephew?" Stan shouted again, pointing into the empty room.

"Oh, that was your nephew?" the nurse asked, stiffening up.

"_Was _my nephew? What are you saying lady?"

"Nonono, he's not dead," the nurse said quickly, "He was just moved."

"Moved where?" Stan and Mabel demanded at the same time.

"The psychiatric ward," the nurse said simply, then she threw a hand over her mouth, "Did I say that out loud?"

Stan and Mabel were gone in a flash.

The psychiatric ward consisted of about 4 rooms in one corner of the hospital. Considering how small of a town the hospital was in, it was a surprise they had such a ward at all. There was a door blocking it off that read, "Doctors only" and it had a simple lock that Stan had no trouble picking.

Inside, was a small, tan and off-white hallway that broke off into four doors, and everything was dead silent. Stan picked the lock to the first door, but there was nothing there aside from a dusty bed and rolling table. The second door had a small, hairy man, who looked up with a dopey smile when they opened the door. The third door wasn't locked, but Stan looked at Mabel, then pushed the door open.

Both of them gasped at what they saw. Dipper was strapped by his ankles and wrists to the bed, sobbing profusely, his eyes still blank and distant, while a tall doctor sat by his side, writing something down in a notebook.

"What are you doing?" the man shouted, standing up quickly, "Get out of here!"

"What are you doing to my nephew?" Stan demanded, running up to Dipper's side.

The man pressed a button on a keypad by the side of the door, then typed in a combination.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the man said, pulling Stan away from the crying boy.

"What's wrong with him?" Mabel asked, grabbing the man's sleeve.

"Sweetheart, your brother here needs mental help, and it is only going to make things worse if you stay here!" the doctor said trying to pull both of them out of the room at once.

"He's tied to a bed!" Stan shouted.

"He is strapped down so he doesn't hurt himself!" the doctor shouted. At that moment, several burly men entered the room and seized Stan roughly, and took Mabel by the arm.

"Take them to the waiting room," the doctor said with a wave, "I need to talk to them."

"No!" Stan and Mabel shouted together, as they were dragged out of the room.

* * *

Stan sat in the uncomfortable waiting room chair next to Mabel, with a large man standing behind them to make sure they stayed put.

The chubby nurse walked in, eyed Stan and Mabel, then walked out. It wasn't very long before the doctor from the mental ward walked into the room, wiping his hands on a towel. He took a seat across from the two and took a deep breath.

"Well then," he said.

"Look, I'm sorry about 'breaking into a hospital' and all, but will you please tell me what is wrong with my nephew?" Stan said, making air quotes.

"Mr. Pines, correct?" the doctor said, nodding towards Stan.

"Yes, I'm his great uncle,"

"Any you are Dipper's sister?" the doctor looked towards Mabel.

"Yes," she whispered.

"Where are your parents?"

"They live in another state," Stan explained, "They sent these two to spend the summer with me."

"I see," the doctor said, touching his lip, "Do you remember David?"

"The quack who visited us before?" Stan couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth.

"Umm…yes, he visited you before," the doctor said slowly, "And we got a full report from him. Tell me though, did anything else strange happen between then and when he came here?"

Stan looked at Mabel.

"He had nightmares…and heard voices," Mabel offered.

"I see," the doctor said.

"He's not crazy, if that's what you're getting at," Stan said, standing up, but he was set down by the man behind his chair, "Dipper is the smartest, most level-headed kid out there, so don't you tell me he's off his rocker."

"Well, Mr. Pines," the doctor said, leaning back and folding his hands, "I am forced to say that your nephew doesn't seem to be in his best mind. To be brutally honest, your nephew is kicking, screaming, shouting at nothing to stop doing something, and he won't respond to anything we do. Mr. Pines, your nephew is, in fact, insane."

Stan looked like he was about to protest, but said nothing.

"It's not his fault!" Mabel blurted, "He's sick!"

"He's sick, yes," the doctor said like one would speak to a little child, "But it's his head that's sick. He keeps imagining things that aren't really there."

"No!" Mabel protested, but deep down, she felt the doubt. Was Dipper going crazy? Was that why everything was happening? No, it couldn't be.

"I burned the book," she whispered to herself.

"I'm sorry?" the doctor said, leaning closer.

"I don't believe you," Mabel said stubbornly.

"Okay," the doctor whispered, then he turned back to Stan, "Has anything traumatic happened to him recently? Say, a death of a close friend or pet?"

"No, not that I know of," Stan said, clearly getting impatient with the man.

"How long have you been noticing that he's been acting strange?"

Mabel counted in her head, "Three days."

"That's quite fast," the doctor commented, "Now, has he said anything about his nightmares or the voice in his head? Any recurring themes?"

Mabel looked the man in the eye. "Nothing," she said. She stared at the man hard.

"Doctor Hanson!" a woman burst into the room, "The patient, you need to get over here now!"

"What's wrong?" the doctor said, standing up.

"He's semi-conscious, and he keeps calling for someone named Mabel,"

"I'm Mabel!" Mabel shouted, leaping from her chair.

The doctor looked at the Pines,who had their eyes wide.

"Bring the girl," he said, running out of the room.


	12. Here and Gone Again

_"__He's semi-conscious, and he keeps calling for someone named Mabel,"_

_"__I'm Mabel!" Mabel shouted, leaping from her chair._

_The doctor looked at the Pines, whose eyes were wide._

_"__Bring the girl," he said, running out of the room._

* * *

Mabel stood by her brother, along with Doctor Hanson, the burly man from the waiting room, and the woman who had called them in.

"Dipper," she whispered. He had stopped thrashing and now he looked more exhausted then terrified. She reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out a blue and white cap with a pine tree symbol on the front. She reached up and placed it on his head, but while she brought her hands back, she snuck a small red journal out from under the covers and placed it in her pocket, all the while whispering, "I'm here."

Dipper's eyes closed, and the woman jotted something down in her notebook. Mabel took his hand and whispered his name.

"Mabel?" Dipper muttered. Doctor Hanson gasped and nudged the woman.

Dipper's eyes blinked open, but they were focused, and the vacant stare was gone. He turned his head to look at Mabel and the rest of the crowd.

"What's going on?"

* * *

"Mabel, what happened?" The doctors had let Mabel have a moment with her brother, provided he remained strapped down and they could watch through the security cameras and wait directly outside the door.

Mabel patted her pocket where the journal was, "The book."

Dipper looked at the ceiling and exhaled loudly. "It spoke to me again, it kept saying I belong to it and that I would become it, and I couldn't hear or see anything else, at least, not until now. It was like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from."

"You wouldn't stop screaming and kicking," Mabel explained, rubbing his arm, "But then they said you suddenly stopped and were calling for me. I took the book and you woke up."

"I was calling for you," Dipper confirmed, "That was how I woke up…last time."

"Wait, really?" Mabel asked. Dipper nodded slowly. "You were calling my name and you woke up?"

"The book said I had found something to live for," Dipper said, looking at her. Mabel smiled sadly.

"Am I wearing my hat?" Dipper tried to reach up and touch it, but his arms were still strapped down.

"Sorta," Mabel said, reaching up and removing it. "This was in our room, but it doesn't have the tag with Wendy's number on it."

Dipper blushed slightly, "You knew about that?"

"Of course, silly," Mabel said with a smile, "You're my twin brother! Anyway, it's the same kind of hat as yours, but it's not _your _hat."

"Okay…what are you saying?" Dipper asked.

"How long do you think you've had the wrong hat?" Mabel asked.

"I dunno, I did notice it looked kinda, you now, not worn out two days ago," Dipper said, moving to make motions, but couldn't, "Stupid restraints."

"So I think that your hat was switched out the day you started acting strange," Mabel said thoughtfully, examining the hat.

"That doesn't make any sense," Dipper said.

"I know," Mabel sighed, "But, then again, nothing has made any sense lately."

Dipper gave a little shrug.

"How are you feeling?" Mabel asked, changing the subject.

"I've felt better," Dipper confessed with a sigh. "I'm pretty itchy, and my head hurts."

"How bad?"

"It's been getting worse since I woke up."

Mabel felt in her pocket and found the book wasn't there. She reached under the sheets again and put it back in her pocket.

"Better?"

"A little."

There was a moment of silence, then the door swung open.

"If you don't mind, we'd like to make sure you're brother's okay," Doctor Hanson said, stepping into the room. Mabel looked longingly at her brother.

"I'll be okay," he whispered.

"Only if you promise to unstrap him first," Mabel said with a smile.

"Okay sweetheart," the woman said, "Now run along and find your uncle, it's way past visitor's hours."

* * *

It was dark by time Stan and Mabel got back. Mabel climbed up into the lonely attic and put on her pajamas. She slipped into bed and tried to get to sleep. Unfortunately, it was harder than it sounded. Mabel kept tossing and turning, glancing over at Dipper's empty bed. She couldn't close her eyes knowing that the book wasn't in her pocket anymore, and that Dipper was stuck in a hospital with a bunch of doctors that thought he was insane. Eventually, however, the exhaustion of her long day came over her and she closed her eyes.

Mabel sat up in bed. The sun hadn't even begun to peek over the horizon, but Mabel threw off her blankets and put on her slippers.

"Grunkle Stan!" She called, stepping down the stairs, "Grunkle Stan!"

"Snuzzf!" Stan awoke with a snort. He had fallen asleep in his easy chair again.

"Grunkle Stan, something's wrong!" Mabel said, shaking his arm.

Stan yawned, "And what makes you think that?"

"I just know," Mabel said, "But something really bad is happening, I can feel it!"

"You and your brother," Stan muttered. Just then, the phone rang.

"Why don't you get that?" Stan said with a stretch. Mabel ran over to the phone in the other room and picked it up.

"Hello? Pines residence," she said.

"Hello, this is Doctor Hanson, is this Mabel?"

"Yeah…wait, what's wrong?"

"Could you please put your uncle on, dear?"

"What's wrong with Dipper?" Mabel shouted.

"Yeesh, hand me the phone," Stan said, staggering into the room. Mabel gave him the device.

"What's wrong with my nephew?" he shouted into the phone as soon as he put it to his ear, "He did what? When? What kind of a harebrained hospital are you? Yeah, whatever!" Stan slammed the phone onto the receiver.

"Grunkle Stan, what happened?" Mabel asked, afraid to know the answer.

Stan sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "Mabel, you're brother's gone missing."

* * *

NO MORE DOCTORS! YAY! Oh right...poor Dipper. Sorry, I'm glad to be out of that hospital now. Never liked it in the first place.

The breaks are annoying. FF deletes them every time.


	13. When the Wolves Come Out

_"Grunkle Stan, what happened?" Mabel asked, afraid to know the answer._

_Stan sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "Mabel, you're brother's gone missing."_

* * *

Dipper slowly blinked his eyes open. He winced and curled up as a wave of pain flowed through his body. Everything seemed to hurt and Dipper took deep breaths to try and calm his breathing. He opened his eyes again and realized it was dark, and he was outside, and very high. Dipper could see almost all of Gravity falls below him. Dipper took in the situation as best he could. It was late at night, that much was clear, and judging by the cold wooden platform under his cheek, he assumed he was up on the water tower. He was dressed in his everyday clothes, minus his hat, and he was curled up around the book. That, and it was cold out, very cold out. Dipper shivered and curled up closer around the book. He wanted to push it off the platform, but every muscle in his body was screaming to stay still.

Dipper closed his eyes and tried to remember how he got here. Nothing added up. The last thing he could remember was being in the hospital, in hospital garb, surrounded by hospital workers who were asking him questions. Then nothing. Then he woke up here.

_"I brought you here."_

Dipper sighed painfully, _"Not you again, when will you let up?"_

"_Soon, It won't be much longer before you fully become the book. It's amazing how long you lasted; my last vessel gave in much faster."_

_"Your last vessel? You mean_ you've_ done this before? To who?"_

"Oh, you'll know soon enough."

As the voice in his head spoke, Dipper could hear footsteps coming up the ladder, and the tower shaking slightly. Dipper couldn't see the ladder, so he could only watch and listen as something…someone came closer and closer.

"Who's there?" Dipper whispered as loud as he could.

"Well, well, Dipper Pines," the figure said as it appeared onto the platform. It had a familiar silhouette, and an unmistakable accent.

"Gideon?"

* * *

Dipper couldn't stop staring at the short little person on the platform before him.

"Gideon…you?" he stuttered.

"I always thought you had one of those books on you," Gideon said, putting a finger on his chin, "But I never had the chance to find out."

"Gideon…how did you?"

"Save your breath, Pines," Gideon interrupted, "I know exactly how you're feeling right now, and let me give you a piece of advice: give in."

"What?"

"Just quit, become the book!" Gideon said, waving his arms, "All the pain will end, and boy, you don't know all the power you'll get! Why, lookie me!" Gideon motioned to himself, "With the help of the book's power inside me, I was able to discover your _scutum _and get rid of it, and now, together, you, me, and the book, our power will be unimaginable."

"_Give in_," the voice in Dipper's head urged, _"Let me become you."_

"My…_scutum_?" Dipper said, ignoring the voice.

"You're shield! The magical object that holds you back from the power of the book!" Gideon explained, "You see, mine was my amulet, and when that was gone, _Whoosh!_ I'm a new and improved man!"

"My shield…my," Dipper's eyes went wide, "My shield was my…"

"Your hat!" Gideon finished, pulling the blue and white article from his pocket, "It was simple enough, I nabbed it and switched it with another one from the gift shop, then I only had to sit back and watch as the pyramid did the rest."

"Give it…" Dipper said, forcing himself to hold his arm out.

_"No,"_

When the voice spoke again in Dipper's head, both Dipper's outstretched arm and the hand with which Gideon held his hat withdrew simultaneously.

"What?" Dipper felt as if his arm had gone numb.

"Ooh, looks like you're close to the point where you can't resist the book anymore," Gideon observed, "He's already starting to control your body!"

"Wait, he controls your body?" Dipper whispered, looking up.

"Every inch of it," this time, it wasn't the voice of Gideon that spoke through his mouth, it was that of the pyramid, "I control his arms, his legs," the body moved to demonstrate, "I control his will and emotions. When he submitted to me, he lost all the pain he had been feeling...he went numb, and now all he can do is watch from his subconscious as I fill out my plan for him."

"Why are you telling me this? I thought you wanted me to submit to you."

"I did, but it's too late now," Gideon said, his voice slowly morphing back to normal, "Now there's no going back, and I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer." Gideon crumpled the hat in his hand, crushing the brim like a wad of paper, then he tossed it off of the tower.

"No!" Dipper shouted, reaching over the side.

Gideon laughed. The laugh changed between Gideon's unintimidating giggle, to the haunting, sinister laugh of the book.

"Say goodbye, Dipper Pines, to everything you ever knew!"

Dipper screamed as he felt like his body was being crushed, just like a wad of paper.


	14. In My Head

_"Say goodbye, Dipper Pines, to everything you ever knew!"_

_Dipper screamed as he felt like his body was being crushed, just like a wad of paper._

* * *

Mabel ran. She had no idea where she was going, but she refused to stop. After Stan had told her of her brother's disappearance, she had wasted no time getting dressed and sneaking out of the Shack.

She had been dashing about the dark forests, armed with nothing but a flashlight, looking for any sign of her missing sibling, but found none, until a scream echoed faintly through the trees.

"Dipper!" Mabel turned and ran towards the sound. She stopped when she found herself directly in front of the Mystery Shack.

"Dipper, where are you!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

_"Mabel," _then she heard her name. She spun around, but there was nobody there.

_"Mabel," _It came again. It sounded just like Dipper's voice.

"Dipper?" Mabel said aloud.

_"Mabel, Mabel, Mabel, Mabel,"_

The voice repeated her name in her head, each time, sounding more and more in pain.

_"Dipper! Where are you! Please tell me!"_ Mabel screamed in her thoughts.

_"Mabel!" _This time it was a new voice, strangely familiar, in her head.

_"Gideon? Is that you?" _Mabel thought.

"Please help! At the water tower! The book is going to take over your brother; you have to get over here now!"

Mabel didn't hesitate to sprint for the tall structure in the distance, _"How are you talking to me? Why are you in my head?" _Mabel jumped over a tall log and landed hard.

_"I can't explain now! Just please, come over here!"_

Mabel gasped for breath as she ran between the trees. Another scream echoed through the woods, only nearer, and weaker.

"Dipper! Hold on!" Mabel shouted aloud, "I'm coming!"

* * *

Dipper had never been so scared in his life. Nothing that had happened all summer could top this…not the gobblewonker, not the wax figures that tried to kill him, not even the spider-like Summerween Trickster that had given him nightmares the night after came even close to scaring him this much. No, now he was being torn out of his body and there was nothing he could do about it. His legs and his left arm had gone numb, and it felt like all the pain had concentrated in eitherhis head, his chest, or his stomach. His vision was blurred by the tears that streaked down his face, and he could barely even scream anymore as all his effort was focused on just breathing.

"You should have given in when you had the chance," Gideon said softly in the voice of the pyramid, "Now I'll just have the pleasure of squeezing the last bit of Dipper Pines out of you…then, you know what I'll do?" Gideon smiled cruelly, "I think I'll get rid of little Mabel's _scutum _too. Then we'll be like a big happy family."

"No you won't."

"Excuse me?" Gideon said tauntingly, turning to the voice.

"I won't…" Dipper paused to gasp painfully, "let you."

"Oh, I'd better just give up then," Gideon said, turning away defeatedly, "LISTEN BOY!" He spun back around and clenched his fist by Dipper's face, his expression twisted in an infuriated growl, "I own you!" he shouted, spitting out every word, "It's over! You lose!" Gideon clenched his fist tighter and Dipper writhed on the ground with a cry. All the feeling rushed from his chest, and now, all Dipper could even feel was his limp right arm a swirling blob of pain threatening to burst his skull.

"Dipper!" a voice echoed faintly up to the tower.

Gideon smiled, "Well, look who's here…"

"Dipper! I'm coming!" Mabel called again, growing slowly closer.

"No!" Dipper cried, "Mabel no!"

_"No." _Dipper whispered one last time to himself.

_"Dipper! I can hear you!" _Dipper could have sworn he heard Mabel's voice in his head.

_"Mabel?"_

_"Dipper! It's me! I'm coming!"_

Dipper let out a shaky breath.

_"No," _he thought.

_"What?"_

_"No, don't come for me, it's too late."_

_"Don't talk like that! I'll be there in just a minute!"_

_"That's too long. Mabel, I'm sorry," _Dipper paused, _"You're the best sister I could ever ask for."_

_"Dipper, stop that! I'm going to save you! Gideon told me where you are!"_

_"Gideon?"_

Dipper opened his eyes and looked at the figure that peered over the horizon, waiting for Mabel. _"Gideon spoke to you?"_

_"Yes! He told me to help you!"_

Dipper's mind raced…there had to be a way out of this, there was a loophole; a small one, but a loophole none the less. Dipper went to speak, but found he could barely feel his mouth anymore…he couldn't even blink. He could only wiggle his right fingers painfully.

_"Mabel…I need you to promise me something."_

* * *

Wendy pulled her coat closer to her body. It was usually cold during the Oregon nights, but tonight seemed extra chilly.

"Dipper! Mabel?" she shouted. Stan had called in a panic and now he, Wendy, Soos, and the town police were split up in the forest, looking for any sign of the missing twins…and hopefully find them alive. Wendy shivered and swung her lantern over the cold ground, looking for anything that would give her a clue, but then she heard a voice. Someone was shouting something in the distance, there was an abrupt yell, a pause, and then something suddenly startled Wendy. She glanced around to see what may have caused it, but there was nobody around, but something, somehow, made her heart skip a beat, and there was a nagging feeling in her gut that told her something terribly wrong had just happened.

* * *

_"Mabel, promise you'll do that, no matter what,"_Dipper thought to Mabel, _"Promise me."_

_"I can't,"_ Mabel responded, _"What if-"_

_"Mabel, please," _A fresh wave of tears came down Dipper's cheeks, _"Promise."_

_"I promise."_

_"Mabel…"_

Dipper paused as the dull feeling crept closer to his brain, _"I'm sorry…I wish I could tell you how much you mean to me….and it's a lot," _Dipper found he was beginning to have trouble thinking clearly, _"But this is goodbye."_

_"It doesn't have to be! Dipper, wait!"_

Dipper curled his fingers around the edge of the water tower platform, almost all the rest of his body was not even functioning anymore, "Goodbye," he whispered.

"What?" Gideon turned to face his victim, but Dipper moved so fast, there was nothing he could do about it. Dipper grasped the edge of the platform, and in one burst of his feeble strength, threw himself over the edge.

"NO!" the pyramid shouted through Gideon, reaching down towards the small figure as it fell.

"DIPPER!" Mabel screamed.

Dipper closed his eyes as he fell. Everything felt like slow motion. This was it…this was the end. Dipper let the tears fall from his eyes as he smiled inside. Dipper was gone before he hit the ground with a sickening _thud. _

"FOOL!" The pyramid roared, scrambling for the ladder.

"Dipper no!" Mabel screamed, collapsing to her knees. She had watched the silhouette of her brother fall from the waterfall, and she had felt her stomach hit the floor when Dipper hit the ground. Mabel covered her face with her hands, shaking with sobs.

"Dipper," she whispered.

_"Promise."_

Mabel could almost hear his voice in her head.

_"Promise."_


	15. You Promised

_Dipper closed his eyes as he fell. Everything felt like slow motion. This was it…this was the end. Dipper let the tears fall from his eyes as he smiled inside. Dipper was gone before he hit the ground with a sickening thud._

* * *

Mabel staggered through the forest, her vision clouded by tears.

_"Dead…He's really dead,"_ she thought to herself, almost hoping to hear Dipper's voice reply.

Mabel tripped over a stump and fell on her face. She lay there crying, letting all her sorrows and fears rush out of her and stain the ground along with her tears.

"I can't…I can't do it," she whispered. She lay there a moment longer, then forced herself to calm down, "No, I promised…I promised Dipper no matter what." Mabel picked herself up shakily and trudged on. She knew exactly where she was going…a place that already lodged bad memories for her…she was going to Gideon's abandoned factory.

* * *

Gideon stooped down next to the broken body of Dipper Pines.

"Foolish boy, idiot child," he muttered, looking over the twisted figure. There was a nasty pool of blood forming around him and many of his bones were obviously broken. Gideon sighed and sat cross-legged on the ground next to the motionless body. He pressed his fingers to either side of his forehead and closed his eyes. Dipper twitched, then his right shoulder bone moved back into place…then his leg, then his arm. It was disgusting to watch, had anyone been there to see it, as each bone pulled into its place, sometimes from outside the skin, with a _crack. _At last, all the bones seemed to be in their right places, and all the gashes had closed up. No one would have even guessed that Dipper had fallen off the water tower. Dipper opened his eyes and sat up, his head at an awkward angle. He moved it back with a _snap. _

"Idiot boy," Dipper muttered standing up. He looked himself over and began to test his limbs carefully, then he relaxed.

"At last, took him long enough to give in," he said, brushing the dust off his shorts.

"I only wish he hadn't made such a scene," Gideon muttered, standing up as well, "It's such a bother when they do that."

Something caught Dipper's eye and he walked over to a crumpled up blue and white ball one of the water tower's stilts. He reached down to pick it up, but yanked his hand away quickly.

"Allow me," Gideon stepped over and picked up what was once Dipper's hat and placed it inside his jacket.

Gideon and Dipper looked at each other, then stretched their arms in unison.

"Good G's," Dipper muttered, examining his left arm, "Why must all my vessels be so…tiny?"

"At least this one's a little taller," Gideon said, looking Dipper over.

"No matter," Dipper said, straightening his vest, "With two vessels, my power will be doubled, and this new body will help me take over some of this dump's….more intelligent citizens."

Gideon smirked, and he and Dipper broke into a laugh at the same time, their voices morphing from their own innocent laughs into laughs identical to the pyramid's.

* * *

Dipper awoke with a start.

"Wait…what? I'm alive?" Dipper touched himself all over. He glanced around to see nothing but blackness around him…he was in his dream-world.

"No, you're dead as far as anyone's concerned."

"Gideon?" Dipper spun to see the short magician leaning against nothing behind him.

"Yessiree, the one and only."

"But…what…I," Dipper pointed various directions, clearly clueless as to what was going on.

"Here, let me explain," Gideon said, moving to a sitting position, "The book, see, has taken over your body… And now you're trapped in this darkness until the day someone kills your body, and then you're dead for good."

"How do you know all this?" Dipper asked, sitting up.

"Boy, do you know how long I've been trapped here? Too long! About a week after you broke my amulet, I got a vision, a vision with the book in the form of a pyramid, and he said if I joined with him, he would give me unimaginable power…so what did I do? I said yes!" Gideon explained, motioning with his hands.

"Then what happened?"

"I've been stuck here ever since, with nothing to do but watch the book use my body as he pleases!"

"But…but Mabel said she heard you talking to her," Dipper pointed out.

"I didn't know I could do it, and I don't think the book did," Gideon said, walking over on the air to sit next to Dipper. "And I'll bet you didn't know you could either!"

"Wait, so I can talk to her now?" Dipper asked urgently.

"Nope, I've tried, and so far as I know, we can only communicate with someone if the book is talking to them as well. I only wish I'd figured it out sooner," Gideon said with a shrug.

"But…the book wasn't talking to Mabel, was it?"

Gideon eyed Dipper, "Well, you were more or less the book at that point weren't you?"

Dipper stared warily at Gideon for a second, "Why are you helping me? I thought you wanted me dead."

Gideon blew out a breath, then stood and paced for a moment, "Because, Pines, I'm aware of what this book is capable of. This book ruined my life, and right now, it's far bigger of an enemy than you."

Dipper looked at the nothingness below him. "A truce then?" he said, looking up.

"Truce," Gideon said, offering his hand. Dipper reached out and shook it.

"Not like we have anything to do trapped in here," Gideon said, glancing around the void.

Dipper sighed in agreement, "Wait, but…your amulet vanished…completely…does that mean you'll never get your…scoot thing back?"

"No…no…" Gideon said slowly, "Just like the book, you can't fully destroy a _scutum_."

Dipper breathed out a sigh.

"Why?" Gideon asked.

"If what you're saying is true…we still may have a chance."

* * *

Mabel stumbled towards the almost sheer face of the cliff that the factory overlooked. Her chest hurt, but less from the hike than the ache.

"I promise, I promise, I promise," Mabel repeated to herself between gasps, "I promise."

Mabel looked up at the looming building before her she shone her flashlight all over the front of the cliff side then down on the ground. Rocks, sticks, grass…Mabel walked around and shone the light on the ground. She continued to shine until she found what she was looking for: Broken glass. Mabel looked up and she could almost make out a broken window way high above her head, then she turned and pointed around the glass until something blue-ish green reflected her light. Mabel knelt known and picked up a broken piece of Gideon's amulet.

"Huh…" she muttered, looking it over. It was the exact same shape and color as the amulet before, but it Mabel could have sworn she'd seen it vanish in a puff of smoke.

Mabel clutched the glass in her hand, careful not to cut herself, and bit her lip.

"I promised," she told herself once more, then she gathered up as many pieces as she could find and shoved them in her sweater pocket.

Suddenly, there was a rustle in the bushes. Mabel jumped and pointed her flashlight where she thought she'd heard the noise. Nothing happened, and Mabel slowly turned back to gathering up the little glass pieces, but then she heard it again. Mabel pointed her light again, but this time there was something there.

"You!" Mabel shouted, backing up, "Go away!"

At her feet was a small brown-bearded gnome, who tapped his foot impatiently.

"Don't you get it? I don't want to marry you!" Mabel turned to run, but then the gnome spoke up.

"I'm not _here_ to marry you!" he said, putting his hands on his hips, "I have direct orders to take you back to the hideout."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Mabel protested. There was a pause, "Who sent you?" Mabel asked warily.

"You'll see," the gnome said, rubbing his hands together. As he spoke one giant gnome made up of hundreds of little ones pushed the trees aside to get into the clearing. Mabel screamed and turned to run, but the creature easily reached down and picked her up.

"No! Stop it! Leave me alone!" Mabel shouted, kicking and struggling with all her might. Some of the gnomes laughed as the giant beast turned and trudged through the forest, knocking down trees.

"Help!"


	16. All These Voices

"_No! Stop it! Leave me alone!" Mabel shouted, kicking and struggling with all her might. Some of the gnomes laughed as the giant beast turned and trudged through the forest, knocking down trees._

"_Help!" _

* * *

The giant gnome-beast marched on through the forest with the girl in hand. Once it seemed to have reached its destination, the giant gnome broke apart into hundreds of little gnomes, causing Mabel to fall hard in the ground.

"Get off! Get away from me!" Mabel shouted, struggling to run away, but the gnomes had a firm hold on her clothes and would not let her go.

"We have direct orders from the top miss, and we're not letting you get away this time!" the brown-bearded gnome said, crossing his arms, "Now if you don't mind, please follow me."

Mabel, of course, struggled to go the opposite direction, but the massive army of gnomes had no trouble dragging her after the gnome with the brown beard. They pulled her through a small passageway through the trees, that Mabel found vaguely familiar, but the skid marks on the ground gave it all away.

"This is where you took me when you first kidnapped me!" Mabel observed, looking around, "And where Dipper came to…" Mabel's voice faded off.

"Wait here," one of the gnomes pushed her off balance into the clearing. Mabel yelped and landed on her face.

"Mabel!"

Mabel blinked…that voice….it couldn't be.

"Mabel, are you okay?"

"Dipper?"

* * *

Mabel looked up to see her twin brother all tied up in a corner of the clearing.

"Dipper? Is that you?" she asked, not getting up.

"Mabel, it's me," Dipper said, biting his lip and smiling, "I was so worried."

"Oh, Dipper you're okay!" Mabel leaped up and hugged her brother as tightly as she could.

"Mabel….choking," Dipper said breathlessly.

Mabel cried into his shoulder, "I thought you were dead. I thought I'd lost you again. I was so scared," she whispered.

"It's okay, it's okay," Dipper whispered, stroking her arm with his fingers as best he could, being tied up, "Could you untie me though?"

Mabel quickly undid the ropes ensnaring her brother, and Dipper quickly wrapped his arms around Mabel in a hug, and Mabel hugged him back, letting her tears soak his sleeve.

"Wait," Mabel said, pushing him away gently, "Who trapped you here? What happened?"

"I can explain later, right now, we need to get out of here," Dipper said, looking around the tightly packed forest and the army of gnomes that blocked their exit.

"I…uh, did what I promised," Mabel said softly, reaching for her pocket.

"You did what?" Dipper asked, looking at her sideways.

Mabel looked at him for a second. Then carefully shoved her hands into her pocket, "Nothing, nothing," she said quickly.

Dipper eyed her for a second, then turned back to the forest, "I have an idea, but I'm going to need your sweater."

* * *

Dipper's plan didn't make any sense, mostly because he didn't tell Mabel what it was. Mabel was squeezing between the crowded plant life of the forest, the branches scratching her bare arms. Dipper had taken her sweater, told her to walk off this way, and headed the other direction. When Mabel begged him to stay together he only said, "Trust me."

Mabel didn't know where she was going…or why the gnomes weren't chasing her. Maybe there was no way out of the forest but he way in….or maybe it led off a cliff…or maybe-

"Ouch!" Mabel tripped and banged against a tree. It made a metallic _clang_ sound. Mabel touched the bark and rapped her knuckles against it, resulting in a similar noise and the sound of bark breaking off a tree. Mabel walked around to the other side to see a compartment had flopped open, knocking its contents on the ground. Mabel gasped and stumbled over backwards. There, on the ground, was a maroon journal with a golden six-fingered hand on the cover, marked with the number 4.

Mabel looked closer at the book. It looked just like Dipper's, only less worn and battered. In fact, it looked like it had just come out of a bookstore. Mabel backed away slowly, watching the journal.

"Mabel!"

Mabel yelped and spun around to see Dipper moving through the trees behind her.

"Dipper!" she said in a relieved tone, "Come here, you need to see this!"

Dipper made his way up to his sister and looked at the ground before her.

"Wow," he breathed. Dipper reached down to pick up the book, but Mabel grabbed his arm and held him back.

"Dipper, no! Remember what the other book did to you? Don't touch it!"

"Hey, it's okay," Dipper assured her, "The book doesn't have any power over me anymore." He reached for the book again, but Mabel pulled him back.

"No, Dipper, don't," Mabel said firmly, "I've lost you twice because of that thing, and I'm not letting you touch it!"

"Fine," Dipper said it like it was a challenge, "If you don't want me to touch it, _you_ pick it up!"

"What? No! Neither of us is going to touch it! Why can't you just leave it alone?" Mabel shouted angrily.

"Why are you so paranoid?" Dipper yelled back, "It's just a stupid book!"

"It's not just a stupid book! It's almost killed you more than once? Do you not understand that?"

Dipper crossed his eyes and made a face, "Hey Dipper," he said in an idiotic voice, "Do you think we're all going to die if we pick up that book?"

Mabel's eyes went wide. There was a moment of silence as Dipper and Mabel stared at each other.

"You're not my brother," Mabel whispered.

"I really wouldn't mind that," Dipper said, crossing his arms.

"No, you're not…my brother," Mabel said again.

Dipper looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"What did you do to Dipper?" Mabel whispered.

"You miss your brother?" Dipper growled in a voice that was not his own, "I'll tell you what, you want to ever see your brother again, pick up the book."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Pick up the book," the voice said again.

"I won't"

"PICK UP THE BOOK!" The voice shouted through Dipper's body, "I have your brother trapped in a world I control, and if you don't pick up that book, I will make him _suffer!_"

"_NO!"_

Everything stopped as a new voice entered Mabel's mind.

"_Dipper?"_

"_Mabel, don't do it! Whatever you do, don't do it!"_

"_Dipper…are you dead?"_

The voice sighed, _"__That's not important."_

"_Yes it is! I'm trapped with something that took control of your body and is trying to get me to pick up the book!"_

"_Don't do it, whatever he says!"_

Mabel stared into the eyes of the Dipper form before her. His face was curled into a snarl and he was pointing at the book.

"Why not?" Mabel asked aloud.

"_Because it will kill you! He took your sweater so you'll be vulnerable to its magic, just like with my hat!"_

"_And my amulet!" _came the voice of Gideon.

Mabel felt the sharp shards of Gideon's amulet in her palm.

"_Mabel," _that was Dipper's voice, _"__Before this happened, I asked you to make me a promise."_

Mabel bit her lip and looked down.

"_Please, follow throu…AH!" _Dipper's words were broken by a sharp cry.

"Dipper? Dipper!" Mabel shouted aloud, she couldn't hear his voice anymore.

"Mabel Pines," the Dipper impostor said, crossing his arms, "You were communicating with your brother, weren't you? Fascinating! You may have more magical ability than I thought!"

"What did you do to him?" Mabel asked, trying not to let her voice break.

"Well, at this moment, he's up to his ears in boiling water," the Dipper said coolly.

"What? Stop! Let him go!" Mabel shoved Dipper over and he stumbled, tripped, and fell over.

"_Mabel, it's all in our heads! None of what happens to me is real, just do what I told you!"_ Dipper shouted quickly in Mabel's head.

Mabel hesitated, then turned and sprinted away.

"Get back here! STOP HER!" The Dipper impostor commanded. At that moment, Mabel could hear the high pitched noises of gnomes running all around her, but she didn't stop. Mabel ran into the little clearing where she had found Dipper before, but she kept running.

"Gnomes, quick, assemble!" the brown-bearded gnome shouted, blocking Mabel's path. A few gnomes managed to link together, but Mabel bowled them over as she dashed out of the clearing.

"Get her!" Dipper ordered, stepping out into the clearing.

* * *

Mr. Pyramid isn't good with kids...


	17. I Did It for You

"_Mabel, it's all in our heads! None of what happens to me is real, just do what I told you!_" _Dipper shouted quickly in Mabel's head._

_Mabel hesitated, then turned and sprinted away._

"_Get back here! STOP HER!" The Dipper impostor commanded._

* * *

Stan had been looking all night for his niece and nephew to no avail. The sun was beginning to come up as he found himself at the front door of the Mystery Shack again. Stan sighed heavily and sat on the porch. It was hopeless…it really was. Stan soon found he heard the sounds of a fire crackling out back. He looked up and saw smoke billowing towards the sky.

"Mabel?" he said hopefully, standing up, "Mabel, is that you?"

Stan walked around to the back of the Shack, but was surprised by what he saw.

"Gideon?"

As a matter of fact, Gideon himself was standing in the back yard tossing armfuls of sweaters into the fire pit.

"Gideon, what are you doing?" Stan rubbed his eye tiredly.

"Ahhhm, nothing!" Gideon said, hiding the sweaters behind his back, "Just having a little fire….in your firepit."

"With Mabel's sweaters?"

"Um…yes."

Stan had Gideon pinned up to the wall of the Mystery Shack in a split second.

"Look, I don't know why you're here or what you want, but you'd better give me my niece and nephew back, so help me…"

"What? Hey, look old man, I don't have your…."

"Gideon!" Stan turned to see a little figure running up to him.

"Mabel! You're alright!" Stan dropped Gideon roughly and turned to face his niece, but Mabel ran right past him. She put her foot on Gideon's chest and pinned him back against the Shack.

"Look Gideon, I don't know why I'm even doing this, but I made a promise to Dipper, and I'm not backing out!" Mabel growled in his face.

"Dipper? But I thought he was dead!" Gideon said nervously.

"What?" Stan shouted, but once again, he was ignored.

"You killed him," Mabel growled, pressing harder on his chest.

"Uf…So I did," Gideon's voice changed to one exactly identical to the Dipper impostor's. Mabel didn't know why she wasn't surprised.

"This is for Dipper!" Mabel opened her fist to reveal the shattered remains of Gideon's amulet.

"No! Where'd you get that?" Gideon began to squirm.

Without another word, Mabel slammed the broken pieces into Gideon's shoulder.

"NO! NO!" Gideon shouted his voice rapidly growing weaker. A small spurt of blood soaked his jacket where the glass cut through. Gideon went limp and began to spasm on the ground, his face growing pale.

"I promised," Mabel whispered.

* * *

Dipper floated absentmindedly around the darkness that surrounded him. One might have said he was floating upside-down, but there was really no way of telling. He sighed and flipped over again to face Gideon right side up.

"We're lucky the book is distracted," Gideon muttered, "he likes to torture his 'vessels' in his spare time."

Dipper rubbed his arm, remembering the feeling of being boiled alive, "We're gonna get out of this," he said firmly, "Mabel promised."

Gideon shrugged, "After all this summer of fighting over her, it's up to Mabel to save our butts," he commented.

"And she's gonna do it," Dipper said, floating upside down again, "Eventually."

There was a moment of silence.

"What are you thinking about?" Dipper asked turning to face Gideon, but to his surprise, there was no one there.

"Gideon?" Dipper glanced in every direction, but there was nothing but blackness all around him.

"Gideon! Where'd you go?" Dipper spun around some more, but then he stopped, and he laughed.

"She did it! Mabel did it!"

Gideon sat up with a start.

"Oh my stars!" he shouted, quickly looking around to see where he was, "Am I…am I?" Gideon looked at Mabel and squealed, "Oh my word! Mabel, you did it!" Gideon reached up to hug her, but Mabel drew back and something hurt his arm.

"Ow," Gideon looked down to see a blue-green shard of glass lodged in his shoulder. "My amulet," he breathed, touching it carefully, "You found my amulet! Oh I could just squeeze you right now!"

"You'll do no such thing!" Stan shouted.

"Gideon? Is it really you?" Mabel asked skeptically.

"The one and only! Little ol' me!" Gideon could hardly keep still.

"Where's Dipper?" Mabel asked, trying to hold the little man still.

"Dipper," Gideon stopped squirming and looked at the shards of his amulet. "I know exactly where he is." Gideon reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled blue and white object.

"His hat!" Mabel shouted, snatching the article away. She pressed it back into shape as best she could and checked the inner seam. Inside was a little piece of paper sewn in with the stiches with 10 carefully drawn numbers on it.

Mabel squealed and hugged Gideon tight.

"Owowowowowowowow!" Gideon protested as the glass dug deeper into his shoulder.

"Sorry," Mabel apologized, but she still had a giant smile on her face.

"S'kay," Gideon smiled back and tenderly touched his shoulder.

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Stan begged bending down to the two smaller people.

"No time to explain!" Mabel said, standing him up again, "You fix up Gideon, and I'll be right back!"

"What? Hey, where are you going?" Stan called as Mabel ran off.

"I'm gonna get Dipper!"

Stan watched her figure disappear behind the trees.

"So, uh, Mr. Pines," Gideon said slowly.

"I'm confused, was this an act or do I…are you…" Stan said, not looking down.

"How about we get this glass out of my shoulder and I'll see if I can explain," Gideon suggested.

* * *

Dipper sat on a fallen tree, absentmindedly flipping through the pages of the '4' book. He stopped and looked up when something rustled in the bushes.

"There's no use sneaking up on me, Mabel," he said calmly in his normal voice, "I know what you're up to."

There was a pause.

"Listen Mabel, there is no point in fighting each other, and I think we can come to an agreement," Dipper said, looking back down at the book.

Mabel didn't reply.

"You see," Dipper continued, "You have Dipper's _scutum, _and unfortunately, are aware of its power, but I have this book, which you don't especially want either." Dipper closed the book so the cover was facing up, "But there is another side to this. We both have something the other wants. You, of course, want your brother back, and I want to have you. Do you see where this is going?"

"You want me to trade myself in for Dipper," Mabel said in a low tone, coming out from behind the trees.

"Yes, it would be an even trade for both of us," Dipper said coolly, looking up at Mabel, "Are you interested?"

Mabel thought for a moment. "Why do you want me instead of Dipper?" she asked warily.

Dipper shrugged, "Perhaps being in the skin of those who love you so dearly has changed my opinion of you."

Mabel eyed him carefully, "I don't believe you," she said slowly.

Dipper shrugged again, "How's this for a trade," he said, looking at the hat in her hand, "I give you this book, and you give me the hat."

Mabel looked at the wrinkled object, then up at Dipper, "How about," she said slowly, "You keep both!" Mabel lashed out with the hat, bringing it down at his head, but something stopped her. Dipper held Mabel's arm firmly away from his body.

"Is that the way it's going to be?" he asked in the voice of the book. Mabel gasped and suddenly, everything seemed to melt away. The forest was gone, and so was Dipper, everything was black, and Mabel felt almost as if she was floating.


	18. Let's Make A Deal

"_Is that the way it's going to be?" he asked in the voice of the book. Mabel gasped and suddenly, everything seemed to melt away. The forest was gone, and so was Dipper, everything was black, and Mabel felt almost as if she was floating._

* * *

"Wait, what happened?" Mabel asked, spinning around to see the nothingness around her. Suddenly she felt solid ground come beneath her, and then it felt as if she was going up. Mabel looked down to see she was on a type of platform that was rapidly climbing into the air, and at the same time, the bottom was falling away far below. It was mere seconds before Mabel couldn't even see the end, but all at once, it stopped.

"Now you're on my home turf, let's talk business," said the voice of the book said. All at once, a strange pyramid-shaped person appeared beside Mabel's platform. Mabel started and almost fell off from where she was standing. The pyramid was gigantic, it's legs stretched far, far down below, and Mabel could have easily run circles in its palm.

"You're the book?" Mabel asked, trying to avoid whatever it was getting at.

"As for the trade…" the pyramid continued, "Apparently it wasn't…good enough for you."

Another platform zoomed into the air opposite Mabel.

"Let's see if I can make it more interesting," the pyramid said, standing beside it.

"Whatever it is, I don't want it!" Mabel protested, "I'm not taking that book!"

"I think I can change your mind," the pyramid said, a sort of sinister laugh lurking in its voice, "Here, you have two options, one, of course is to take the book, and get your precious sibling back." As he spoke, the '4' book appeared, floating above the platform, "But I can make you another deal," the pyramid said, stroking the cover of the book with his finger, "You refuse the book," he stopped as another shape appeared on the platform.

"Dipper?" Mabel called, but something was wrong, Dipper's eyes were hidden under his hair, and he was wearing a big, almost unnatural smile, "That's not Dipper! Who do you think you're fooling?"

"Patience," the pyramid said, "Let me get him back in his body," Just after he spoke, Dipper's smile disappeared. His jaw went limp and he staggered for a second, but then went straight again, so much so, he fell over backwards.

"What? Hey, what happened?" Dipper asked sitting up.

"Dipper?" Mabel called, not ready to believe it was really him.

"Mabel?" Dipper turned to see his sister on the other platform, "Oh no, Mabel! What are you doing here? You didn't…did you?"

"I don't think I did…is it really you?" Mabel asked, almost hopeful.

"Yes, it's me! What happened? How did you get here?" Dipper then noticed the giant pyramid standing beside him, "You!" he shouted, pointing at its one eye, "What did you do to Mabel?"

The pyramid sighed, but didn't look at him, "I really didn't want to see you again, but a deal must be made," he muttered, and with a snap of its fingers, Dipper found himself enclosed in a transparent glass box.

Mabel saw her brother banging against the walls of the box, but she couldn't hear anything he said.

"As I was saying, Mabel," the pyramid said quickly, "If you accept the book, I will release Dipper and give him his body back, but if you don't…" the pyramid didn't finish, but at that moment, the box began filling up with water. Dipper moved around in the box as the water quickly reached his knees, then his waist, then his chest. Dipper pressed his hands against the side of the box that faced Mabel. He slowly and firmly shook his head side to side and mouthed the word, _"N__o"._

Mabel wrung her hands as the water reached the top of the box. "No! Don't!" she blurted, not taking her eyes off Dipper.

Dipper held on to his determined expression, not once looking away from Mabel. Mabel motioned her distress, but Dipper held up his hand. He pointed at the book, then at Mabel, then made a "never" motion with his arm. He tapped the side of his head.

Mabel nodded slowly, trying not to cry.

All at once, Dipper blew out all the air he was holding in, the color draining from his face.

"It's not real, it's not real," Mabel whispered to herself, looking away.

It seemed like forever before the pyramid spoke up, "Look," it said.

"No," Mabel squeaked.

"Look at your brother,"

"I won't" Mabel protested, but she found herself turning around anyway. When she caught sight of the box, she let out a sob and turned away again. Dipper was lying limp and colorless on the bottom of the box. She had lost him again.

"There is still a chance to change your mind," the pyramid said casually, "I might be able to bring him back."

"He's not dead!" Mabel protested, still facing away, "It's all a dream, none of this is real!"

"If that's how you feel," the pyramid said. The box shattered and all the water ran off the platform down into the depths below. Dipper coughed and gasped. Mabel didn't even look up.

"It's not real, it's not real, it's not real," she whispered over and over to herself, holding her head.

Mabel heard something _crack _and head Dipper scream, but she still didn't turn around. More and more horrible sounds reached her ears, but Mabel still didn't turn around. Her tears stained the ground below her and she screamed whenever she heard her brother's pained voice.

"STOP!" she screamed, standing up and turning to face the pyramid. She wiped her eyes on her bare arm, "Please stop! I'll…." She paused. The pyramid watched her smugly.

"Don't Mabel! Please!" Dipper shouted, curled up on the other platform.

Mabel looked between her brother and the book, "I'll take the book, just leave Dipper alone!"

"NO! MABEL!" Dipper screamed. Mabel watched the 4 journal float over to her platform slowly. The pyramid watched in satisfaction as Mabel reached out and took the book in her hands.

"AT LAST!" the pyramid boomed, "Both of the Pines twins are mine!"


	19. Lose It All

"_NO! MABEL!" Dipper screamed. Mabel watched the 4 journal float over to her platform slowly. The pyramid watched in satisfaction as Mabel reached out and took the book in her hands._

"_AT LAST!" the pyramid boomed, "Both of the Pines twins are mine!"_

* * *

"What? But you said…" Mabel protested.

"I lied, Mabel," the pyramid said flatly, "Why would I sacrifice one of my vessels when I wanted both? You were easy enough to convince."

"What are you going to do with us?" Mabel whispered.

"You'll see soon enough," the pyramid said with a wave. Dipper vanished in a ripple, "Foolish of you to come without a sweater," the pyramid said smugly.

"Well then," Mabel said, brushing the cover of the journal, "I have a confession to make too."

The pyramid was almost smirking.

"I lied as well," Mabel dropped the book off the platform. As she did so, the blackness around them seemed to be melting away.

"What? What's going on?" the pyramid demanded as everything melted away into white except for himself and Mabel.

"You'll see soon enough," Mabel said with a smile.

* * *

"Mabel, are you alright?"

Mabel blinked her eyes open to see Gideon leaning over her worriedly. Mabel felt the warm fuzziness of a sweater around her neck.

"Where's Dipper?" Mabel asked, sitting up quickly.

"Right here," said an all too familiar voice. Mabel looked to see Dipper levitating high in the trees. His eyes weren't visible, and his teeth were gritted in sheer fury. "I am _through _with these games, you used a telepathic link to have your friends save you…I have already lost three vessels, but," he paused. "I have retained their power."

"Three vessels?" Gideon asked, doing the math on his fingers.

"Wait…you?" Mabel turned to see her great uncle pointing up at his nephew, "I thought I had gotten rid of you for good!"

"Hello again, Stan," Dipper said with a smile, "I missed you."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Mabel and Gideon said almost together.

"Your uncle was my first vessel," Dipper said with a smirk, "We had a good long time together, didn't we Stan?"

"Grunkle Stan?" Mabel faced her great uncle, eyes wide.

"How did I not see it?" Stan said, touching his forehead, "The sickness, the secrets, all the talk of fantastic creatures, you gave him a journal, didn't you?"

"Yes, he's had it for months, I'm surprised you didn't notice," Dipper said, taking a seat in the air, "But let's move on. Since each of you accepted the book, I now have the power of the four most magically able people in this wretched state, I only wish you would have cooperated…we could have been such a great team."

Suddenly, Gideon vanished in a flash.

"Gideon?" Mabel and Stan shouted together.

Stan disappeared in the same manner.

"Grunkle Stan!"

"Mabel, Mabel, Mabel," Dipper said slowly, rubbing his hands together, "Just you and me now…shall I make you vanish as well, or maybe something a bit more…creative?"

Mabel looked down at her hands, where a ragged blue and white hat lay. Mabel bet her lip and reached into her sweater pocket. She pulled out a shiny silver object with four sharp hooks on the end…her grappling hook.

"What on earth are you doing?" Dipper asked with a sigh, "When will you accept defeat?"

"Dipper, I don't know if you can hear me," Mabel said quietly, "But I'm sorry. You meant everything to me…and…I'm sorry."

"What are you babbling about?" Dipper asked impatiently.

Mabel looked up with tears in her eyes and pointed her hook at Dipper. One of the hooks at the end had the blue hat speared onto it.

"I'm sorry," Mabel said again.

"Wait! No! What are you doing?"

Mabel pulled the trigger, and in a flash, she was gone.

* * *

One more chapter dudes!


	20. The End

_Mabel looked up with tears in her eyes and pointed her hook at Dipper. One of the hooks at the end had the blue hat speared onto it._

"_I'm sorry," Mabel said again._

"_Wait! No! What are you doing?"_

_Mabel pulled the trigger, and in a flash, she was gone._

_..._

_Our story tonight: The famous Stanford Pines, owner of the Mystery Shack, was found unconscious in the woods along with his niece, nephew, and the star of the Tent of Telepathy, Gideon Gleeful. Two of Pines's staff members were in the woods and they claim they heard shouting and went to investigate. They then came upon the unconscious group, one badly hurt. The four were rushed to a hospital. Gideon, Stan, and Mabel Pines all woke up hours later, claiming to have no recollection of the incident. Mabel's twin brother, Dipper Pines was found with a grappling hook lodged in his shoulder, but doctors were able to remove it safely._

"_He will be able to use his arm again eventually, but that hook did some serious damage," says Doctor Hanson, one of the doctors who helped save the boy, "It is such a pity to see something like that happen to someone so young, I hope they catch whoever the culprit was."_

_All four of the victims have returned safely home and are still recovering from what happened. The town police are still looking for any lead that would help them find who committed this terrible crime, but for now, we can only hope and wait._

Wendy switched off the TV with the remote and let out a sigh. It had been a little over a week since the incident had actually happened, but what she had seen that day was burned into her memory.

Wendy took to her room and snuggled under the covers. Stan had already reopened the Shack, and she had to get to work tomorrow. Fortunately, he had let the twins get out of work. Wendy didn't think she'd be able to stand seeing them so much as sweeping the floor. When she had come into work yesterday, Dipper had his arm in a sling and his shoulder was heavily bandaged, and even Mabel hadn't fully returned to her silly self.

Wendy had a hundred questions she wanted to ask them, but she still kept to herself. Unbeknownst to anyone but herself, Wendy had seen more than what she let on. Wendy reached under her mattress and pulled out a blue-green journal. She flipped to one of the more recent entries and read:

_I had given up on the search for Dipper a long time before, I don't know if Stan or Soos stayed with it, but that would mean they were up all night looking. I had gone back to bed, and it took me a while, but I eventually fell asleep, but then something woke me up really early, and I had a nagging feeling that something was wrong. Some echoing shouts confirmed my suspicion. I got dressed and headed back out into the woods. I didn't know where I was going, but it was as if my feet were leading me somewhere, I just sort of _knew _where I was supposed to be. It felt like hours, but at one point I tripped and fell onto my stomach. I was about to get up, but then I saw feet standing on the other side of the bushes. Stan's feet. I was about to stand and let him know I was there, but then suddenly, he was gone. I heard Mabel shout his name, and I wriggled closer under the bush so I could have a better view. I was surprised by what I saw. The first thing I saw was Mabel, clutching Dipper's trademark hat in her hand, but then I saw Dipper himself, but something wasn't right. I couldn't see his eyes, and he had a threatening smile, but that wasn't the worst of it, he was floating in the air, a good 15 feet off the ground, and his voice…it wasn't his voice at all, it was deep and dark, and sounded strange coming from his mouth. I don't remember what he said, but I remember that it shocked me. Then Mabel took her grappling gun out of her pocket and stuck one of the hooks through the hat. She whispered something about being sorry, then she pointed it at Dipper's chest. I think I jumped up and screamed at that point. Mabel fired and Dipper tried to move to avoid the hooks coming at his heart, but he didn't move enough and the hook with his hat on it got lodged in his shoulder. I saw a spurt of blood and looked away. I heard the deep voice scream, but then it grew weaker, until there was only a soft moan that wasn't the creepy voice at all…it was Dipper's. There was a thud, and I dared to look back again. Dipper lay on the ground, his eyes were closed and he was limp. I didn't know if I should run for help or see if he was even alive, but at that moment something even stranger happened. From Dipper's mouth, and from his eyes like tears, came a white smoke, a lot of white smoke. The smoke curled all around, and seemed to settle into familiar shapes. There was a flash so bright I had to cover my eyes, and when I looked back, as if out of nowhere, there was Mabel, Stan, four almost identical books, and…what's his name….the kid with the big hair and the magic show…can't think of it, were all lying there, perfectly still. A stood frozen for a moment, then I ran. I ran through the forest, shouting for Soos. I practically ran into him. I took him back to where everyone was. We called 911, and we were left with everyone until they showed up. I don't remember what exactly what happened, but I tried to stop the Dipper's bleeding, and Soos confirmed that everyone else was breathing. The next thing I remember was being in a hospital room being asked all sorts of medical questions and questions about what happened. I'm not sure why I did, but I lied about everything. I claimed that I came in and found them there, and had no clue what happened before, and to be honest, I really don't know what happened. It was all so strange. I want so badly to ask one of them what happened, but right now, all I really want is for everyone to be okay._

Wendy closed the journal and gently slipped it back under the mattress. She switched off the light and snuggled down deeper under her covers.

"Soon," she whispered to herself, "Soon I'll know what this is all about."

_..._

Mabel awoke with a start. She blinked a few times to clear her vision, then looked worriedly at the bed across the room. She let out a sigh when she saw Dipper laid out on his back, snoring softly. Mabel laid her head back down on her pillow, but she didn't close her eyes. Ever since she had come back from the hospital, she had been waking up in a panic, wondering where Dipper was, and for a while, he wasn't there because he was still having his arm fixed. Even after he came back, Mabel still found herself shooting up, trying to find her brother.

Things had been awkward for the past few days. After coming back from the hospital, no one seemed to know what to do next. The pyramid was gone…for good as far as anyone knew. Dipper had come back with his arm in a sling, but with no headaches or nightmares, and there weren't any teleporting books lately. Even so, it still was miserable to be left wondering. Mabel reached over the end of her bed and pulled up her box of sweaters. Pushing the knitwear aside, she revealed a golden six-fingered hand with a 4 in the middle of it. Mabel pulled the journal out of the box and flipped through the pages. Stan had gone and returned everyone's books to their rightful owners, and though everyone hated the idea of holding on to them, they all agreed they wouldn't want anyone else to get a hold of them. Mabel usually hated the idea of so much as touching the cover, but occasionally, when no one was looking, she'd browse the pages full of fantastical secrets about the town. Like Dipper's, her book also ended abruptly, but Mabel took advantage of the blank pages to draw in pictures and write the stories of what had happened. At the very last page, there was a sketch of the little pyramid that had caused so much trouble, and whenever Mabel turned to that page, she always found herself quickly shutting the journal.

Dipper was less subtle. For the first few days, he hadn't so much as touched the red covers, but since about two days before, Mabel noticed he was beginning to flip idly through the pages every now and then. Unlike Mabel, he didn't even try to hide it. If Mabel walked in on him while he was reading, he would look up and give a little smile, and if Mabel had something she wanted to say, he would set the book aside.

"Why are you still reading that book?" she asked finally. Dipper held the book in his lap and turned the pages with his good arm. He looked up when Mabel spoke.

"Well," he started, but he didn't finish.

"After all the trouble that caused, you'd think you wouldn't lay a finger on that book," Mabel went on, sitting next to him on the bed.

"Yeah," Dipper agreed, flipping the cover shut so that the six fingered hand was on top, "But really Mabel, even after everything, this book has all the secrets of Gravity Falls, and...and stuff we need to survive."

Mabel didn't say anything.

"And...I guess I'm not afraid of it anymore," Dipper finished, setting the book aside, "I feel..safe now."

"At what cost?" Mabel muttered, "I almost killed you."

"Stop saying that," Dipper said firmly.

"But I did! Look at your arm!"

"Mabel," Dipper said quickly, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Even if you did kill me, I could never be more proud of you."

"What?" Mabel asked, blinking back tears.

"You made the right choice under pressure, and it could have cost you everything," Dipper said, looking her straight in the eye, "You were a leader, and a good, no a fantastic leader at that."

Mabel gave a little laugh, "Yeah, I guess I was."

Dipper smiled back.

Mabel stretched and let out a yawn. "Well, I'm tired, you wanna go to sleep?"

"Yeah, sleep sounds good," Dipper agreed, stretching as well.

Mabel reached into her drawer and pulled our her nightgown with the horseshoe design on it.

"Aren't you going to change?" she asked when Dipper didn't move from his spot.

"I don't have to... I sleep in my clothes all the time," Dipper pointed out.

"At least change your shirt," Mabel fussed, "You have to have worn that same shirt all week."

"Not...all week," Dipper protested, but he began to remove it anyway.

"Ow, Mabel? Could you give me a hand please?" Dipper asked when the shirt got tangled around his bandages.

"Ya, here, hold still."

Mabel gently untangled the shirt on the front, and then stepped around to the back to loosen it up there, but then she stopped.

"Hey Dipper, what's this on your back?" she said, gently touching by his lower spine.

"What's on my back?" Dipper asked, trying to look over his shoulder.

"It's a handprint...six fingers and with a big '3' in the middle," Mabel explained, tracing the fingers on his back.

"Like on the book?"

"Yeah."

"That's...weird, I don't remember putting that there."

"Do I have one?" Mabel asked, lifting the back of her sweater and trying to see her back.

"Turn around," Dipper ordered, spinning his finger in the air.

Mabel turned and Dipper gently touched her lower back. "Yeah, you do," he breathed, "Except yours has a '4' on it."

"Why? Why are those there?"

"I dunno, maybe...maybe Stan knows what it is," Dipper said, then he shrugged, "But I guess we could wait until morning to ask, I think I hear him snoring."

They paused, and sure enough, a loud and unpleasant snore was coming up from the basement. The twins smirked at each other, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Well darn, I was hoping for the number one," Mabel said, reffering to the print on her back, "Guess that makes you the 'alpha twin' huh?"

"No way, four means you scored a whole 'nother point above me," Dipper said with a smile. Mabel wrapped her arm around Dipper's back and rested her head on his shoulder.

"It's nice to have you back," she said with a smile.

"Yeah, I missed having such a hilarious sister," Dipper said putting his arm around her back, and resting his head on hers. They stood there together in silence, and knew at that moment, that everything was going to be okay.

...

Soos glances at the woods around him. He is in the same place where he and Wendy had stumbled upon the missing persons the night before. He knows eerie setting would haunt him in his memories, but something still draws him to the strange place. A ray of sunlight peers through the trees and causes something to glitter behind him. Soos pushes the pine needles away to reveal a red journal with a six-fingered hand in the middle. Imprinted on the hand is a solid black 5. Soos picks up the book and flips through the pages. Soos glances around him, as if he feels like he is being watched, then he tucks the journal under his arm and walks away.

* * *

**AN:** OMIGOSHYAYIT'SDONE!  
WeORNfgAOEbvnAEOGh

Well dudes, thus ends the longest story I have ever written. I'm kinda pleased with myself. :)

Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! You guys rock! I would have never made it past chapter 1 without you guys!

I forgot to mention it last chapter, but big thanks to TheBigZ1 for helping with the title!

AHH! I LOVE YOU ALL! GOOD NIGHT!


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